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A new cigarette lighter collector and viewer on our YouTube channel, Travis Watson, asked in the comments of a recent video if I would do another “about brands or types of lighters that would be a good starting point for a beginning collector?” This article is my initial endeavor to answer the question and provide background information for the video to follow.

Prerequisites

Let’s start with our assumptions about the prospective pool of lighters from which we have to choose.

1. Petrol. Does it have a wick? We’re not going to waste our time with butane lighters. There are plenty of folks out there that repair some of them but we are discussing petrol lighters every beginning cigarette lighter collector should look for and I don’t repair butane lighters anyway. So, if it has valves instead of wick and wadding, avoid it.
2. Vintage. Petrol Lighters in general tend to be vintage since the advent of stable butane fueled lighters supplanted petrol fueled models for virtually every brand except Zippo. We won’t talk about newly produced Zippos in this article but there are obviously some very sought after and collectible models will being produced by the company.
3. Flint. There are some really nifty piezoelectric lighters that have been produced over the last several decades and it’s not the worst idea ever thought of as piezo ignitions are really pretty dependable and while I have heard of them being repaired, it isn’t as simple as dropping in a new flint. If I’m going to invest my time in overhauling an old lighter, it will be flint sparked.

Continue reading “Five Petrol Lighters Every Beginning Cigarette Lighter Collector Should Check Out”

Are you going to eat with that silver spoon or cut steak with your samurai sword as it lays on the fine china you’ve been accumulating all these yrs? It’s not likely but even so some pursuits are wholesome enough for purely ornamental reasons. Cigarette lighters are not useless but what if you put together the greatest collection of cigarette lighters in the world only to have it separated for a pittance simply because you family is in a hurry? Maybe there are ways the collection can be memorialized virtually while still providing the financial support for your family and return on investment you have always hoped.

These Are Practical, Real Life Tools

The appeal of being able to put it in my pocket, carry around and use it was the greatest motivation drawing me toward the cigarette lighter hobby. Jax Teller used his Zippo often, he didn’t just set it on a shelf with a bunch of others.

I am a big sports fan or at least I used to be. When I was a kid and young man I collected baseball cards and sports action figures. Thinking about this as I write rings 1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I was Continue reading “The Supremacy Of Lighter Collecting And An Opportunity To Memorialize Your Efforts”

A slow start gave way to a rush of activity and creativity mid-week as a couple of multi-lighter arrivals give us plenty to work on and ponder.

An Interesting Old, Beat Up Table Lighter

I don’t recall exactly how long I have had this old Japan made petrol table lighter that is missing most of its paint. While the mechanism has always seemed to work and function as it should, the spark provided just wasn’t quite enough to consistently light as it should.

The Dunhill blue flint solved the sparking problem as the lighter was immediately usable but that got me to thinking about ways that I could Continue reading “Vintage Lighter Diaries Vol. 9: New Arrivals, Pondering Some Shipping Questions And My Friend Donald’s Website”

After an absence of less than a month, we enthusiastically welcome our repair clinic Zippos back into the fold.

An Old Beater And A Loosey-Goosey Lossproof

The lossproof Zippo was one of those late night or early morning Ebay bids. Chump change for a beat up old lighter with a ton of character and oodles of potential. It still had most of the paint in its depiction of the USS Camden and its shield, along with some interesting engraving for good measure.

To have tried to carry it as intended would most definitely have resulted in more damage and perhaps even the loss(even partial) of this lossproof Continue reading “Sending Lighters To The Zippo Repair Clinic: A Mixed Bag(Or Padded Mailer) Review From A Happy Customer”

This week’s recap has me thinking it’s time to focus on acquiring some new lighters.

Blemished Park Lighter

At the beginning of the week, I was just wrapping up a four video series looking at and comparing four vintage Park Industries slim flip-top petrol lighters. I’m not sure the audience enjoyed the subject matter as much as I did but I think it is fascinating to look at all the varieties and component options available from just this one segment of the Park catalog.

I don’t have any real Park lighter ephemera other than a few boxes and a handful of the guarantee papers that typically came along with them. I have Continue reading “Vintage Lighter Diaries Vol. 8: Tinkering With Some Old Favorites As We Await Some Zippo Repairs”

As I shift away from accepting lighters through the mail for repair, this article will enumerate some of the reasons. I share my thinking on the matter as our mission at DependableFlame.com continues to evolve. Our goal has always been to help folks get their petrol lighters back up and working again, the only question is how best to achieve that.

I Want To Help

I was a rudderless ship when the foundations of DependableFlame.com were being built. I have been somewhat coy about it in the past and it’s not for theater or hijinx. If I thought I knew what I was doing then, the facts wouldn’t bear that out. I was broken and foundering and grasping for anything that might possibly give me footing.

I had some ideas about what I was doing and where I might be going with it. You might even be able to say the basic framework hasn’t changed at all since our very inception. Our focus, however, has changed often. Continue reading “Why I No Longer Repair Other People’s Lighters”

As spring settles in I learn a lesson or two this week that will hopefully be useful in the future.

Valuing Old Lighters

Joining another Facebook lighter group over the weekend, the number of questions I was subjected to seemed ridiculous. I can only assume this particular group has been inundated with the same questions constantly which I understand all too well can be exhausting.

It’s sort of how I feel answering questions about butane lighters. I want to help. I have also made myself clear about what I do and don’t and I absolutely DO NOT Continue reading “Vintage Lighter Diaries Vol. 7: Proper Planning And Something I Haven’t Seen Before”