Part 2 of my best fiend’s article on the making of his latest film is in a magazine released today. I needed some more stuff in my cart to qualify for free shipping, so I ordered:
A standard brushed chrome.
A slim.
And one that camel gave out. I don’t remember what it originally had as a design, but it has worn to a nice dull brass.
Zippos for a survival situation? Is that a good idea?
I own and covet other Zippo’s but it’s kind of a love/hate thing. I love the mechanical nature of the lighter and that almost everything is replaceable, but hate that the fluid is gone after about a week and a half. There’s no way I would pack a heavier, less reliable, less functional Zippo over any size of Bic. I have found Bics after they’ve been hidden for 10 years and they work fine.
Do you also pack fluid in your BO bag? What say you, silenus?
My collection, I have 2 of the half-sized Zippos:
-Polished Chrome
-Matte black with a thin red pinstripe on the face, around the edges.
Lost full sized:
Brushed aluminum w/ initials
Full sized chrome.
A friend of mine has a mini keychain Zippo which I love even though it’s wildly impractical. It’s a little under 1.5" tall and is attached to a rope-like chain. Couldn’t find a duplicate example to link to.
Burned you on that one, didn’t she? 
I quit smoking many years ago but I still have two Zippos. One with a Scorpio zodiac sign and one with my ship’s hull number from when I was in the Navy, around 1970.
Yesterday I found a Ronson Wind II lighter while I was looking for something else. I have no idea where it came from. Dad always had Zippos, so that’s the brand I grew up with. I wouldn’t have bought a Ronson. Maybe I found it somewhere? I don’t know.
I washed the Ronson, dried it, and put fuel in it. It fired right up. The chimney looks a little cheap compared to the Zippo’s. It looks like they were trying for something more ‘modern’ or ‘elegant’ than the Zippo’s stamped-and-pierced metal one, but to my eyes it looks ‘Wal-Mart chic’. I also find it odd that they stamped the brand and the model on the side of the lighter. I mean, whoever bought one would know it’s a Ronson (I suspect Ronson had as much brand loyalty as Zippo – and I say ‘had’ because Zippo now owns the Ronson brand), and they would also know/wouldn’t care what the model name was. In any case, the nomenclature could have been put more discreetly on the bottom of the case as on Zippos. I compared the function of the Ronson to the Zippo we use for lighting the wood stove insert. The Zippo has a stronger flame. Maybe the Ronson’s wick is too low. I haven’t checked it.
I’ve ordered another Zippo for the collection. Here’s a pic. It has S.O.S. on the lid, with … _ _ _ … in black below it; and the alphabet in Morse code in two columns on the case.
The only Zippo I have is an iphone/ipad app. But it sounds real and has a flame!
I have a particularly cool zippo. It’s cool because it has a subtle etching of the Queen of Hearts engraved on one side. To understand why this is cool, you need to know a little about magic and psychology…
If you were to ask 100 random people to name a random card from a standard deck, you would notice that a disproportionate number of people would say Ace of Spades. This isn’t particularly surprising. The Ace of Spades is, after all, the most “famous” card. However, what would happen if you asked 100 random people to name a random card from a standard deck that isn’t the Ace of Spades? Surely, we’d see a fairly even distribution among the other cards, right?
Actually, no. Interestingly, even once we’ve knocked out the Ace of Spades, there are still cards which are more likely to be chosen than others. Even more interestingly, if we isolate these “second-tier famous” cards (or B-List cards, if you like) and look at who picks them, we’ll see they break down quite strongly along gender lines.
What I mean is, if you were to ask 100 random men to name any card in a deck that isn’t the Ace of Spades, and then plotted the results on a chart, you would see a significant spike for each of the four Kings, with the King of Diamonds typically scoring the highest. Other cards, like, say, the 2 of Clubs or the 4 of Spades, probably wouldn’t score at all. If you were to ask 100 random women the same question, you would notice a similarly significant spike for the Queen of Hearts.
Now, when I say “significant”, I don’t mean “enormous”. The odds that any one man will choose the King of Diamonds or any one woman will choose the Queen of Hearts is still pretty small. However, the odds of them choosing those cards, small though they may be, are better than they are for any other card in the deck (excluding the Ace of Spades). In fact, you can increase the odds even further by asking people to name their favourite card.
What does this have to do with my lighter? Well, if ever you’re at a party and someone brings out a deck of cards, you can do something rather cool.
Take the deck and ask a woman to name her favourite card. If she says anything other than the Queen of Hearts, leave the lighter in your pocket and use whatever card she said as the basis for another trick (make sure you know at least one other trick you can do with a named card, otherwise you’ll blow the whole thing). Since she doesn’t know about the lighter in your pocket, she won’t know that you’ve resorted to your back-up trick.
However, if she does say the Queen of Hearts, ask her to hold the image of the card in her mind. While she’s doing that, light a cigarette with your Queen of Hearts lighter, but make sure to keep the side with the engraving hidden.
Now, there is a little sleight you can do with a zippo (I’ve tried to find a video on YouTube but I’ve come up empty), whereby you can show a spectator the same side of a lighter twice but make it look like you’ve shown her both sides. Do that. Then, take a drag off your cigarette and blow the smoke on the side of the lighter with the Queen of Hearts engraving.
The “effect” is that, in a literal “puff of smoke”, you’ve branded your lighter with a card that she chose “randomly”.
Result? Instant freak-out! Give it a try.
But when your Bic is dead, it’s dead. I can refill my Zippo on damn near anything flammable.
Confession time: Every BO bag also contains a couple of cheap Bic lighters as well. I always grab a few at the checkout aisle at Smart & Final. They are cheap, reliable and everywhere. But they *aren’t *is refillable.
Today I found the chrome Zippo I’d bought in the '80s (or possibly '90s). Now I need to find the brushed chrome one I’d bought around the same time.
I’ve been working on the collection a little since this thread was started. I recently bought a CVN-65 USS Enterprise one, and another for VF-1 ‘Wolfpack’. Now I need to find VF-2 and VA-196. I found a place that can make both, but I need them to provide some clarification.
I found a matte-black VF-196 Zippo on eBay, and snapped it up. Should be here early next week. That leaves VF-2, which is turning out to be a problem.
Zippo won’t put military insignia on lighters unless the order is placed by ‘the military’ and is approved by their licensing department. I do have approval to make a lighter with the unit insignia on it, from the person who approves such things at VFA-2 OPS. Not good enough for Zippo. As for the ‘place’ referred to in my previous post, they only put artwork on matte-white Zippos because their ink won’t stick to anything else. (I want the Classic Brushed Chrome.)
I can find a VFA-2 Zippo on eBay, but it includes an image of an F/A-18 above the insignia, and an image of Abraham Lincoln and the ship’s insignia on the other side. While the unit insignia itself is unchanged, the F/A-18 and Abraham Lincoln don’t fit in with the F-14/Enterprise set I’m trying to complete.
Wish I had known you were looking for those sorts of things before now. There was a military paraphernalia antique store just down the street, but it closed up when the owner died last year.
I used to carry Zippos when I smoked. The first one I owned ended up in the trash because I was showing off to someone by snapping the cover open one-handed. The flint and strike wheel assembly flew out of the lighter and over a fence into someone’s yard. Couldn’t find a replacement in the PX, so had to buy a new lighter, using up preciously few cigarette dollars.
I fell asleep on the Zippo I carried in 'Nam. Woke up with nasty blisters on my back from the lighter fluid that leaked out.
Well, my previous post was from 2016.
Zippo would have fixed it free. Just pay the postage to send it to them.
Back around 1986, some guy decided to croak himself by jumping off a bridge over the Sepulveda Pass. (At least, that’s how I remember it. In 1986 there was a 13-car wreck in the Pass that snarled traffic for 7-8 hours.) It didn’t look like I’d make it back to Lancaster that night, so I – painfully slowly – made my way to friends’ apartment north of Culver City. My Zippo was full, and in my right pocket. After hours of sitting in traffic, with it leaking on my thigh, I had a nice chemical burn on my thigh when I got to my friends’ place.
Today I received a Zippo with the VF-2 patch on it. The lighter is dated 1998. The ‘patch’ isn’t in the best condition, but I bought it anyway because the VF-2 ones seem to be very scarce.
Now there is only one empty space in my 20-lighter display case. It’s for the brushed chrome lighter I bought in the late-'80s (or so), which I’m sure is in the house somewhere.
My balance of zippos on hand is steady at 1. I no longer know how I came by the one I’m keeping (no longer use it but I still smoke.)
I had sort of always wanted a Zippo. There was one old dried out one in the “junk drawer” at my childhood home that looked pretty cool: chrome with black. Maybe from the 50s. I wished I had saved it before the big estate sale and all sorts of stuff went away.
Anyway, I recently bought online a set of 3 and a half Zippos. 4 cases, 3 inserts. Got them all working. Here they are in date order.
Chrome Slimline. Date code 1967. Art Deco style pinstripes. Has a blank area with a rough spot on it. I suspect a monogram plate had been there and broke off. My fave of the bunch.
A real beater chrome. Date code 3/1992 Had a coating of something brown on a lot of it. Some dings and a crack in the lid. The hinge is not so good. Cleaned it up. Got a Zippo butane insert for it. (Knew it wouldn’t hold regular fuel with its problems.)
Ordinary chrome. Date code 12/2002. Unfortunately, some idjit roughly scratched some initials in it.
Chrome with scratched up red pieces on one side. Date code 1/2004. Got rid of the ugly red things and it’s a pretty nice looking lighter.
Once I got some working, I started looking for the best places to put them for emergency use. Along the way it was then I found out how fast the regular ones can dry out. Not good for my intended purposes. Put some bands around them and plopped them into small sealed bags, but that’s not going to keep the fuel in for too long.
I’m wondering about sending the two bad cases in. The Slimline to remove/cover that blotch and the beater one to fix/replace. What does Zippo do with cases that are sort of mucked up, appearance wise? Have a crack in the lid?
Is there anything I can do to reduce the appearance of those crappy scratched in initials?
If you are going to keep a Zippo for emergency use, you should store the fuel separately in a safe sealed container. It is volatile by design. If emergency means that you cannot take a minute to fill it, you would be better off with a butane lighter (assuming it is not too cold for butane) or stormproof matches.
AFAIK Zippo is pretty good about repairing, for no charge, 50-year-old rusty, dented lighters that you send them, even beyond their official guarantee, but I do not see how that would extend to scratched-in initials.
When the lights go out, I’ll pick up a flashlight and go around lighting candles and such. I don’t want to find the fuel, take apart the lighter, fill it (pausing between “squirts”), put it back together, wipe/blow off the spillage, etc.
So, yeah, I bought a packet of Bics. The Zippos are going to be mainly for nostalgia.
I’m not considering the scratched up one for Zippo service. I am looking for advice for how to make it less “scratchy” without making it any worse. The rough edges of the scratches are nasty.
My gf has done advertising work for Zippo (and may still, for all I know). She won an advertising award for a series of ads showing various reflections in Zippo lighters. One was a skydiver reaching for it, another a motorcyclist reaching.
I have a very old Zippo that was a gift from someone. I had my gf ask them if it could be repaired. They took it and were very happy to work on it. Turns out the person who gave it to me purchased it off EBay, it was very old, and had some value as a collectible. From the number on the lighter they were able to tell me exactly when it was made and other details. They repaired the hinge and returned the lighter to me in a display case, all at no charge.
I use to have a nice Zippo collection till my now ex pawned them all. They weren’t the only thing she pawned to support her addictions.
I’m not sure how to solve the evaporation issue. I can see where it is a nuisance, but the pros outweigh the cons IMHO, why not just fuel them up on your way out?
The fuel is standard naphtha, which is a pretty handy substance to have around the house anyway (I keep a liter can of it in my basement machine shop, alongside the acetone and IPA).
It works as a great general purpose light solvent to remove gummy stuff from surfaces. I remember my mom using lighter fluid to remove price tags and other stickers from things.
ETA: my mom collects all kinds of lighters, so I imagine that some people in this thread may have bid against her in a few eBay auctions.