Surprise Present!

Jack Black said:
Are you after another vintage one or a contemperary one?
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Probably another vintage one.
And I actually am not a smoker, never smoked once in my life. It just brought back memories of my Dad's that he got from a relative who was in the war. I'd probably gift him the better of the two.
 
Vanguard41xx said:
Probably another vintage one.
And I actually am not a smoker, never smoked once in my life. It just brought back memories of my Dad's that he got from a relative who was in the war. I'd probably gift him the better of the two.
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If I come across anything on my travels I'll let you know ;)
 
Vanguard41xx said:
That's very kind of you Jack! And you sure do come across a lot of neat stuff.
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No trouble at all. It's surprising what you find. I was passing through Leeds market today and a guy was trying to sell off a huge collection of vintage Soviet stuff!

DeadFall27 said:
Do they make contemporary ones? Could you send me a link, if at all possible?
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They're widely available from tobacconists here, but most don't have websites. However, if you do a search on 'fisherman's lighter' you will hopefully find something. If not, please feel free to PM me :)
 
Now I'm on the hunt! I have a repro 'trench lighter', but it is a standard lighter fluid style. Searching Fisherman's lighter brings up Zippos, and I certainly have enough of those LOL. Then I end back up on the Case knives site, which can be exceptionally dangerous given I just picked up a sweet little Mini-Copperhead yesterday.
 
zippofan said:
Now I'm on the hunt! I have a repro 'trench lighter', but it is a standard lighter fluid style. Searching Fisherman's lighter brings up Zippos, and I certainly have enough of those LOL. Then I end back up on the Case knives site, which can be exceptionally dangerous given I just picked up a sweet little Mini-Copperhead yesterday.
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My buddy had one of those, I loved using it when I used to smoke.

The fisherman's lighter google search had me laughing good, some of the pictures were just ridiculous, hehe.
 
DeadFall27 said:
The fisherman's lighter google search had me laughing good, some of the pictures were just ridiculous, hehe.
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Yeah, wasn't as easy as I'd anticipated! :D I'll see what my local tobacconist can tell me and get back to you guys ;)

A lot of guys used to make their own as all you need is a couple of pieces of brass or copper tubing, a flint wheel off a Bic, and a wick. I used to have an absolute beauty and wish I'd kept it as the guy I gave it to never even used it.
 
I was out having a drink last night with a Scottish friend of mine. We got to talking about trench art, and I was reminded of the lighter. His father works as a teacher in a Scottish prison and he has one of these lighters, a home-made one, which was given to him by a prisoner. Apparently they're still in regular use in Scottish prisons, maybe elsewhere too.
 
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AHA! :D The key seems to be to search for "rope lighters", lots of discussion about them, and they're still being manufactured and available.
 
Very cool! So there's no fuel, and the repeated spark sets the rope to smouldering? Cool idea. Thanks for sharing. :)
 
Jack Black said:
I was out having a drink last night with a Scottish friend of mine. We got to talking about trench art, and I was reminded of the lighter. His father works as a teacher in a Scottish prison and he has one of these lighters, a home-made one, which was given to him by a prisoner. Apparently they're still in regular use in Scottish prisons, maybe elsewhere too.
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How cool! If you ever get a chance to take pictures of it, please share!
Oh, and thanks for sending me the link, btw. :thumbup:
 
Vanguard41xx said:
How cool! If you ever get a chance to take pictures of it, please share!
Oh, and thanks for sending me the link, btw. :thumbup:
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I'm not sure when he'll be back up in Scotland (he's just been there for Xmas), but I already asked him to try and get me a pic, so I'll hopefully be able to post one :)*

Actually my doctor sometimes has to go into the prison in Leeds, I might ask him if he knows about them, though maybe he wouldn't know.

* - Might have to remind him as we were drinking Sierra Nevada Torpedo last night!
 
They used to be popular with trawlermen on the British fishing fleet. Now we don't have so many trawlers, and if the guys on them are allowed to smoke, they probably use Zippos! Another factor in their decline might be that, up until 1994 here, disposable lighters were heavily taxed and so relatively expensive. That change apparently led to the disappearance of several long-standing match companies.
 
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