The wonderful Bic lighter?

One thing I love about Bic lighters are the huge long flints they have. Even after the fluid is gone out of one, chances are there's still a quarter inch of flint or more in it. I haven't bought a flint in years just from picking up dead Bics and harvesting the flints out of them.
 
I use my Bil-Lit for cigarettes but always keep a Bic for smoking pot since the fuel has no taste.
 
This is so true for me. I don't put lanyards on my knives, but at some get togethers a lanyard may be needed for my lighter.

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Who doesn't love the little guy? Bic makes great, inexpensive, stuff that works. I like bic lighters because, firstly, they always work, and secondly, they are cheap enough that i would not hesitate giving one away or mourn it's loss if i couldn't find it. Same goes with their pens and razors.
 
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I carry a mini on my keys everyday! Use it several times a week.

When I grab my keys I have a flashlight, knife, screwdrivers, church key, Rx meds and of course... FIRE!
 
I've been carrying a Bic lighter every day for 25 years or so. They're the best all-around lighters I've ever used or seen. If you put an O-ring around them to keep the gas button from being unintentionally depressed, they will last for years. I used the same one every day for about 4 years. It still has some fluid in it, I retired it. I have dozens of the things laying around.

The Bic lighter has to be one of the all-time greatest industrial designs. It is perfect. Well, it was, until they added the stupid "childproof" thing to it, which is easily removed.
 
I'll tell you all good Bic story.

I'm a pipe smoker, have been since the age of 14 when I swiped one of dad's pipes and a baggy of tobacco and went one to the woods next to the house to try it out. Loved it nd been puffing ever since. Well one day years after Ihad ditched over to Bic's from my pain in the butt Zippo, I was out at the shooting range and took a break to smoke my pipe. I'd been meaning to pick up a new Bic as I could see the fuel was running low. I kept on saying, "I'll pick one up tomorrow." The next day I'd be saying "I'll pick one up tomorrow." Well the inevitable happened, and I went to light my pipe out at the range and zip. Nada. Nothing. The Bic had finally run out of fuel. And I wanted to smoke my pipe.

Then I thought of the emergency kit behind the seat of my truck. I always keep a emergency kit in an old army canvas tool bag. A few wrenches, screw drivers, vice grips, duct tape, mora sheath knife, and some matches in a waterproof bottle. I went and zipped open the kit, and found a Bic I had stashed there at least 5 years before. It was still in the factory plastic wrap. I tore it open not really expecting it to work after all that time sitting there in summer heat and winter cold for years.

The hell it didn't. I flicked the Bic and it lit right up still full of fuel. I was impressed. All those years and it was fine as the day it was bought. I carried that lighter for the next 4 or 5 months, lighting my pipe, charcoal lighter in the Weber out back, what ever I needed to light up.

I've never had the reliability from my old Zippo like I have from the Bic. Someday in the 26th century, some archeologist is going to be excavating some ruins of 21st century civilization, and they're going to find a Bic lighter in some underground chamber that used to be somebody's basement. The darn thing will still probably light up. :D
 
Interesting thread Andi :)
I don't smoke, never smoked, and never will...but I usually carry a lighter. And it's a Bic.
I have one Zippo lighter that I bought some years ago. I do like it, but I don't really carry it around anymore.
I know exactly why I started carrying a lighter though. In 1994 I went to London for the first time. One afternoon, I was sitting on the bench at a bus stop. There was no one else there apart from our small group. I looked around, and on the bench sat a Bic lighter inside a metal cover with a Marlboro logo on it. I took it, lighted it...and that was it.
That's exactly the same I carry now. It is pretty heavy for a Bic, but who cares? I can swap the Bic once it's done, it's cool, and reminds me of a moment in my life. And it never let me down.

:cool:
 
As a full time smoker, I preferred a Zippo because it had so much more style than a Bic, but a Bic was always more reliable. So I carried a Zippo to use, and a Bic as a backup. I don't smoke anymore, but I still have some Bics laying around, and they still work.
 
Here are a couple cool little things I have for Mini Bics. The first makes the problem of the button accidentally being pressed go away, and the second one helps for grip and comfort :)

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For each you can pop them out and replace them easily, but they fit snug enough to not fall out or anything. I actually found both of them on the side of the road too :)
 
jackknife said:
... All the guides carried a 12 inch machete used for all sort so things, and in a nylon pouch on the belt was a sak, and a Bic lighter. The sak's were used for all kinds of stuff around camp at night, and I saw one guide do some maintenance on a gas stove with his sak. All campfires were lit by Bics. When I asked one guide why they all carried a Bic, his reply was simple. "They always work."
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Here in the jungle, it rains twice a day, you are fording small rivers all the time and sweat gets everything in your pockets wet. The Bics fire up everytime here. The Zippos work better in the wind and rain but cost about 40 times what a Bic does. I always carry a Bic and some kitchen matches for kindling.

There isn't a whole lot that you can't do with a 12 inch machete here. Chop trees, butcher meat, clean fish, cut fruit, plant crops, open a coconut when you get thirsty. The only thing better is an 18 inch machete.
 
Charlie Mike said:
I use my Bil-Lit for cigarettes but always keep a Bic for smoking pot since the fuel has no taste.
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The fluid adds that little extra though:D

My Zippo has taken reign over my Bics for pocket time. But there's always a Bic at home and in my bag just in case.
 
I like the long stem BBQ models. Got a couple in the kitchen.

Good Bic lighters and modern pens are a real measure of civilization. ;)
 
I don't smoke and don't carry one, but I always keep one in my glove box, one in my possibles bag that stays in my truck (i don't call it a BOB because its just set up to deal with things I may have to do, i.e., a few tools, knives, pens, paper, etc. and not as a bug out deal) and I have several at my house, which my wife thinks is odd since I don't smoke.

My wife also has a bunch of those long ones to light candles and stuff. They are also great for lighting bonfires.
 
I like Bic lighters, they always seem to work. Other EDC items have been introuduced since they have been around like multi-tools, one-hand clip-on knives, high output small flashlights, ATM cards, but its hard to beat reliable fire.
 
We find bics everywhere at work, they come from the bottom of the pool and the divers bring them up from the bottom of the lake or we find them on the beach. I chuck them in a drawer for a couple of days and low and behold they work. I keep one in each bag/car/desk/workbench and they all came from work. Funny thing is that they are always the full size ones.
I carry a mini that I got from a kid at work every weekday and my old regimental Zippo on the weekend (with a gas replacement insert in it). Don't smoke any more though.
 
Ive got a few Bics that are more than 10 years old and they still retain the gas and work perfectly.

What do people think about clipper lighters - They seem as reliable as Bics BUT are refillable and the flint can be replaced also.

For those that like Zippo , I bought a Thunderbird insert for my Zippo ( 1941 black ice )and its great !Brings it into 21 century.

Refillable with butane , has a safety flame instead of a jet flame just like a regular Zippo.
 
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