Vintage lighters anyone ?

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JB101

Full Member
Feb 18, 2020
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Watford
I do like vintage lighters , recently I’ve picked up the following
 

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The bowers army and navy one is missing a chain and ball cover .From what I’ve been able to find out , one removed the cap which pulled the chain and raised the wick ,also these date to the 1940’s rather than WW1 .
The Asprey type one is a flint scraper type , more of a tinder lighter than an actual ‘lighter and the reg design nNo dates to 1915
 

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I picked up a consul lighter in a cheap lot of old household candle items in a local auction. It's nicer to use than a cheap bic and works well but sadly the refill nozzle leaks and I've not got round to seeing if it can be fixed.
 
I got myself one of those rope lighters just to try it out. Not difficult to get the rope to glow, but can you light anything with it? Well in my experience nope, I shall stick to the ever ready ferro rod.
 
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I got myself one of those rope lighters just to try it out. Not difficult to get the rope to glow, but can you light anything with it? Well in my experience nope, I shall stick to the ever ready ferro rod.
I would have thought that it should be as if it were an ember & therefore eminently useable .I've not got arround to playing with mine yet although i did read of people soaking the wick in parrafin to enable a flame .
 
I do like vintage lighters , recently I’ve picked up the following
Nice looking! Are they using lighter fluid, like zippos, or something else?

I don't use lighters much and now that I've got a smokeless smoker for my bees, I hardly ever need one, so a trusty Clipper works better for me, but they're obviously not as nice looking.
 
Nice looking! Are they using lighter fluid, like zippos, or something else?

I don't use lighters much and now that I've got a smokeless smoker for my bees, I hardly ever need one, so a trusty Clipper works better for me, but they're obviously not as nice looking.
At the moment I am not to sure,I have read that some soak the wick in Parrafin ,others the wick is 'nitrated, & others just bare so they give a smoulder/ember effect rather than a flame .
 
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Nice looking! Are they using lighter fluid, like zippos, or something else?

I don't use lighters much and now that I've got a smokeless smoker for my bees, I hardly ever need one, so a trusty Clipper works better for me, but they're obviously not as nice looking.
What’s a smokeless smoker? I keep
Bees and I just use a normal smoker quite adept at lighting it though)
 
I wondered about the smokeless smoker as well, a bit of a search and it seems there are what looks like a vape? I might try a cheaper plant mister again as I hardly use a smoker and only really need something to clear the bees from the edges of the boxes when putting them back together.
 
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What’s a smokeless smoker? I keep
Bees and I just use a normal smoker quite adept at lighting it though)
It’s basically like a vape on a set of bellows with a fluid that’s supposedly calming the bees. It’s a lot less irritating for my airways, but a bit sickly sweet so I still avoid inhaling the smoke as much as possible. It’s called Apisolis and you can read more about it and my review of it here: Apisolis vapouriser

There’s definitely room for improvement, but I thought if nobody buys it that will never happen.

I do miss my weekly pyromania session getting the smoker going, but I now have a honey stove to play with on the patio so… :D
 
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I wondered about the smokeless smoker as well, a bit of a search and it seems there are what looks like a vape? I might try a cheaper plant mister again as I hardly use a smoker and only really need something to clear the bees from the edges of the boxes when putting them back together.
That’s pretty much it. It’s got some proprietary blend to use in it. It’s good but not quite as good as a regular smoker.

I don’t usually use much smoke (happy to have the bees crawl all over the top bars as long as they don’t mind me) and just have it for the initial distraction and if they are in a grumpy mood, so I probably got smoked more than the bees did!

I must say that it was very reassuring to have something that wasn’t likely to start a grass fire during last year’s heatwave though.
 
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At the moment I am not to sure,I have read that some soak the wick in Parrafin ,others the wick is 'nitrated, & others just bare so they give a smoulder/ember effect rather than a flame .
Just noticed half my reply went missing!

An actual flame is obviously more useful, but I can see how just getting an ember quickly and conveniently from something like a lighter would still be an improvement on the old fashioned flint and steel (and charcloth or whatever) set-up. But perhaps the time gap between that and your bare-wick ember-creating lighter is a bit too long for that to be a real factor?
 
Just noticed half my reply went missing!

An actual flame is obviously more useful, but I can see how just getting an ember quickly and conveniently from something like a lighter would still be an improvement on the old fashioned flint and steel (and charcloth or whatever) set-up. But perhaps the time gap between that and your bare-wick ember-creating lighter is a bit too long for that to be a real factor?
I would have thought that the wick would essentialy become charcloth on a rope so essentially a quicker method than flint and steel.Athough from a backcountry perspective flint and steel is a more dependable method in that if its being used in wet /snowy conditions it won't get damp (dry tinder needed of course) whereas a wick could get wet (unless impregnated /treated with wax or similar and lighter flints don't like getting wet.
 
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I wondered about the smokeless smoker as well, a bit of a search and it seems there are what looks like a vape? I might try a cheaper plant mister again as I hardly use a smoker and only really need something to clear the bees from the edges of the boxes when putting them back together.
I have heard of just a water mist being used rather than a traditional smoker
 
I have heard of just a water mist being used rather than a traditional smoker
I’m just worried about the bees (and brood) getting chilled. It’s not like they don’t have to deal with a lot of damp and cool days as is in this corner of the world…
 
Very nice!

I love old lighters even though I stopped smoking 17 years ago!

I still have a bagful of them somewhere, My dad was a scrapman on the lorries and used to bring all sorts from the scrap, Once he brought a heap of old petrol type lighters wrapped in an old towel, Wer spent weeks getting them going!!

I may have to find them out tomorrow and see if they still work (The missus still smokes! )


John..
 
I got myself one of those rope lighters just to try it out. Not difficult to get the rope to glow, but can you light anything with it? Well in my experience nope, I shall stick to the ever ready ferro rod.
You can light finely scraped silver birch bark\shavings with a rope lighter I have 2.
 

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