Lighters to collect that were used in movies

[joberg]

Thank the Maker that you're not collecting pianos You would, soon, run out of room I think that your strategy is sound: getting as much as you can and try to screen see it

 

[VonMagnum]

I think I'm nuts to keep buying lighters (I did a count and I have just over 100 working lighters.... ranging from 1920 to 2022). 102 lighters for 102 years...

I just bought two Zippo cases (way cheaper than full lighter). I had a leftover wick insert from buying a blue flame insert before I wanted a new home for and I bought a Thunderbird yellow flame butane insert I put into the Brass Armor case I bought from the same seller. I plan to put in my toolbox at work to use on shrink wrap (wick lighter would need filled too often for sporadic shrink wrap use, but a butane should work nicely). The Candy Apple Red one is very nice looking, IMO. I still can't find that Bogart partial stripe case anywhere and I looked at hundreds....

I love Candy Apple Red.... I need a car in this color!

Brass Armor Case for extra dent resistance at work....

I feel like I'm at a Pink Floyd concert with more than one lighter lit at once..... (still trying to get the fuel cap off that wooden handle coper body "Colony" lighter in the background (left) and a 2nd Georgian (right) with a case in much better shape but a frozen fuel cap, probably due to a disintegrated rubber gasket designed to slow evaporation, but after 50-60 years it's more like cement. I think heating it might just work to soften it so it will turn. WD-40 sure as heck didn't work.... )

 

[Uridium]

The other day i was rewatching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, (fantastic film) and noted that the lighter in the film was a big plot point.
Thought I would mention it in this thread....

Found some interesting trivia in a Guardian article,
Clip joint: Cigarette lighters.

Relly enjoyed following this thread, you have a really interesting collection.

 

[VonMagnum]

OK, this probably wasn't ever in a movie seeing it's a custom wooden base made for a Ronson butane lighter (identical type to the Crown Butane I have except missing its jewel in the flame adjuster handle and brass instead of silver). Unfortunately, it slowly leaks out the snuffer cap due to a weak spring in the ball bearing in the snuffer top. I need to find out how to remove those to replace the spring behind it (pressing the needle with my finger shuts the gas off fully). But on the bright side, the lighter insert is fully interchangeable with that Crown one I just bought that works fine so it's like having a different Zippo case for an insert....

The artist signed the bottom of his hand made wooden base "FM" with a bug logo.... I feel like it's a mini-redwood cut down and a lighter stuck in it...(or a lump of charcoal... )

It works for awhile....

 

[VonMagnum]

The other day i was rewatching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, (fantastic film) and noted that the lighter in the film was a big plot point.
Thought I would mention it in this thread....

View attachment 1632126

Found some interesting trivia in a Guardian article,
Clip joint: Cigarette lighters.

Relly enjoyed following this thread, you have a really interesting collection.

That's a Dunhill (or knockoff variant; can't be sure without seeing the bottom) lift-arm lighter called "The Unique". It was Dunhill's first lift-arm lighter and dates back to 1924, if I recall correctly. There's one in the Edward G. Robinson / Humphrey Bogart movie "Bullet or Ballets" and I think the James Bond movie, From Russia With Love (Dude: "Got a match?" Bond: "I use a lighter" Dude: "Even Better!" Bond: "Until they go wrong...") and probably more. It's their most famous lighter until the RollaLite and Rollagas came out which probably sold even better....

Here's mine of the same variant/year (newer ones had fancier lift-arms with "Dunhill" written on the lift-arm stating around 1929) (without the writing on it). Eventually they started making butane versions (one of which was in the Timothy Dalton James Bond movie "License To Kill" with a trick butane wire up his tuxedo sleeve to make a huge flame thrower effect and engraved from Felix Lighter and his bride from Three's Company (Priscilla Barnes). That was a custom one; you can't get them flat texture normally; I have a gold version of that butane version). There's also a "Sport" model with a protective "chimney" around the wick for use outdoors and a newer Turbo Sports one with blue butane flames.

 

[VonMagnum]

Uridium - As for that article from The Guardian....

The first lighter is a Ronson Adonis like I have on the previous pages except it's a different texture (flat) with a monogram added and a tennis racket brick-a-brack glued on. I saw that article once before, but didn't recognize it then. Given I own three of them now it's easy to spot.

 

[VonMagnum]

I couldn't pass these two up in an auction recently. Ronson "Trophy" lighters customized for The U.S. Naval Submarine Base & The Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. Both need a little attention yet (the sub one could use a replacement handle and snuffer without the plating coming off; I'll keep an eye out for an extra that will fit). Both have stuck flints or something. I'm too tired to look at them tonight. But they're nice looking.

 

[VonMagnum]

I just got a batch of IMCO "New Old Stock" lighters from Poland.

IMCO 6700 Jr. (Left with color check pattern & Middle no color check pattern) and IMCO 6800 Streamline with Chesterfield Logo engraved (right). Chesterfield was the same brand of cigarettes that was on the lighter in Hellraiser 3 that Terry Farrell kept from her dead father.

Hellraiser 3 Chesterfield Lighter:

 

[VonMagnum]

My Evans Trig-A-Lite Lighter has arrived that was featured in The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938) with Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart. It worked, but didn't seem to catch very well (I could go 10+ pulls without it lighting and different flints and cleaning didn't help). I ended up changing out the wick and packing and cleaning the hinges. It does much better now (particularly if you hold it at an angle so the sparks are focused towards the wick (maybe lights 1/3 on average), but it's still poor compared to a well functioning Ronson or Dunhill (usually closer to 9/10). I'm thinking the spark wheel might need sharpened/filed. I need to get a jeweler size file for that. A softer flint might work too (harder to find varying flint types these days).

 

[VonMagnum]

The Ronson Minerva table lighter (1952). Repaired (drilled out stuck flint and extracted wick stuck down in lighter), cleaned it and removed most of the tarnish (silver plated lighter mechanism), added a flint and lighter fluid. Voila.

I recently read the "Adonis" mechanism was used for all kinds of lighters, particularly table lighters as it was easy to insert into almost any shape (given how small the Adonis is) and I'm pretty sure most of these Ronson table lighters I've been purchasing are all Adonis mechanisms (like the Dark Passage lighter mechanism).

 

[VonMagnum]

I got the Ronson Trophy Lighters with the US Naval Submarine Base and US Coast Guard Academy working. It turns out the "corrosion" on the Submarine lighter (shown from original picture a week or so ago) is actually just nicotine stains or something. They cleaned right off.... I overfilled the lighters so there's some residue (not to mention large flames) on the chrome in the lit pictures. I didn't feel like waiting for them to evaporate enough to stop getting fluid on the snuffer, etc and spraying on a light.

That leaves two table lighters (in the background to get the fuel caps off) and another one coming in the mail soon....

 

[VonMagnum]

I'm watching Bogart's movie In A Lonely Place (1950) and about 13 minutes in, what do I see, but a Ronson Decanter table lighter like the one I just bought a few weeks ago....

 

[VonMagnum]

There's also a Ronson pocket lighter in the same movie (In a Lonely Place - 1950). There are many similar looking Ronson pocket lighters, but I think it's a Ronson Standard lighter by the looks of it.

Ronson Standard Lighter with similar body:

 

[VonMagnum]

An IMCO G11 gas lighter has arrived in almost mint condition. The gas cartridges were disposable in them, but with an Airsoft valve refit and new o-ring seals on the top end, they can be made to work again. I plan to try that out as soon as I get some valves and some free time to play with it. But it's one more IMCO model collected in the mean time....

IMCO G11 with Green Enamel Finish

I just got another Ronson Crown lighter in from 1936 or thereabouts. It's brand new in the box and never used. It even has the little spark brush and what not with it. As such, I'm not lighting it up as to preserve it's unused status. When I think about it, I'm not sure what the point is collecting it, but I couldn't pass up owning an unused one from the 1930s as it's almost like time travel.... (Note: You can tell it's the 1930s version because of the rounded snuffer cap). As you can see, the finish unused is rather mirror quality.

Ronson Crown Lighter straight out of the box from the 1930s....

Mirror Shine!

 

[joberg]

Yeah...looking at all of the designs that were used for one habit: ashtrays, cigarette packs, lighters, etc...when you think of it; it's incredible the amount of collectibles one could have. I commend you for trying to match the lighters to movies; it makes the challenge that more difficult.
That unused Ronson + original box is F.A.B.

 

[VonMagnum]

I got a Ronson Tempo lighter in today and like another Ronson lighter ("Trophy" lighter) it seems to be fully of tiny "seeds" or sawdust or something instead of cotton. WTF!?!? They look extremely tiny, but it's weird I've gotten two with them in it now. There's no cotton or just a tiny little piece left inside. The rest of the contents are these seed things. This lighter looks unused in near perfect condition and yet it has these seeds inside them. I wondered if someone was smuggling some illegal plant seeds in lighters or something, but these are two different lighters from different sellers. Could cotton break apart and shrivel into sawdust somehow? It's mind boggling.



Meanwhile, I got another IMCO "Dandy" lighter, which is similar to a Dunhill Trench lighter, but with a removable "candle" fuel chamber and made in the USA instead of Austria. I think it was only made a few years as they're relatively rare compared to most IMCO lighters. This one has a functioning spark wheel (the problem seems to be the center wheel is not "free" to move on the other one which is why I can't get any spark, but it was sold as unused. I tried WD40. That got the main lid/wheel moving freely, but the spark wheel just moves with it. I have no idea how to get the center pin out of that one. This one, however (which was carefully photographed to not show there's some plating off in the front, but is still in better overall condition than the other one that cost me twice as much) has some ginger-like smell in the cotton/wick chamber and the way it's "sticky frozen" I wouldn't be shocked if it were ginger ale or something dried up in there. I'm running the metal clip through some vinegar-baking soda water to get the sticky dried stains off....

Meanwhile, I swapped the cotton-clip-wick thing from the other one I already repacked and put it in this one and a flint and this one actually works. Hooray! It still doesn't spark as well as other lighter designs and I wonder if that's why they only made for two or three years....

I have one working Dandy lighter, at least. I'll clean the other clip and get a wick/cotton ready, but unless I can free that spark wheel and get the slightly too large flint out of the chamber (getting the spark wheel out might fix both if I could reassemble), it's apparently going to be display only.


IMCO "Dandy" Lighter

 

[VonMagnum]

The Ronson Tempo lighter (circa 1954)

This lighter was full of seeds/sawdust even though it looked barely if ever used. I changed the wick just because it was empty at that point and I had it get it through to the bottom to repack it with fresh cotton anyway. I wonder if I put a light scratch on the chrome in the process? I just got some new polishing dremel brushes and paste to try and get rid of the scratches on the one Ronson "Trophy" lighter clear acyrlic so I could try a bit on that spot. It should come right out if it's barely on the surface.

It seems UFOs were popular in the mid-1950s as this seems to be based on a flying saucer concept.

Thumbnails (apparently fresh fill of lighter fluid fogs up chrome....)

 

[joberg]

^^
I like that UFO design very much. As for a cotton wick decaying and looking like sawdust...this is a first for me

 

[VonMagnum]

^^
I like that UFO design very much. As for a cotton wick decaying and looking like sawdust...this is a first for me

Not the wick itself.

Wick based lighters (touch-tip by Ronson excepted) have cotton "packing" in them to absorb the lighter fluid and feed the wick that runs through it (unlike a lamp where the wick sits in the oil or kerosene or whatever. It's also less likely to leak when held by cotton. There's an unbelievable amount in table lighters. Like after you pull it all out, it looks like enough for four table lighters.

In those two lighters, there was no cotton, just this sawdust like stuff. It made things easier because it just poured out. Pulling cotton out of a table lighter is a royal PITA. The fuel opening is too small for the cotton trying to come out. Pocket lighters are also a pain, but there's a small fraction of the amount of cotton compared to these Ronson table lighters. What takes 5-10 minutes for a pocket lighter can take 40 minutes to an hour or more.

Lately, I just try to get half out of the way to feed the new wick through and repack from there, especially if the cotton still looks reasonably good.

I just tried my heat the fuel cap screw with fire to try and melt/break the dried rubber o-ring seal holding it in place like cement on two of these lighters. It worked on the Ronson Georgian lighter I have with the plating fully intact. I then had to remove half the cotton, feed a new wick through, repack the cotton I removed by stuffing rolled out cotton balls through and slowly feeding that end of the wick in with the cotton back in the bottom while the snuffer held the other end.

I then had to take the snuffer assembly apart to free the frozen flint and clean the flint tube out. I then loaded a new flint and screwed the spring loaded screw assembly back in and fueled up the lighter and buffed the outside a bit.

Heating the brass lighter with the wooden arm in the background of some of these photos (a Ronson Colony lighter) didn't work and caught the felt on fire a bit which smelled BAD. I attempted it twice and the fill cap still won't unscrew.

 

[VonMagnum]

Ronson "Georgian" Lighter (1949-1954 for flat snuffer version; a rounded snuffer indicates the 1936-1948 run). This is the 1949-1954 version and has reasonably good plating intact. I finally freed the frozen fill cap by heating it with a flame which must have melted or otherwise broke the rubber o-ring enough for it to open (I pried it off completely once I got to it). From there, it needed a new wick and partial cotton packing, taken apart to free a stuck flint and cleaned up. It's now working like new again.




The one prior in the thread with some plating starting to come off shown again below is the 1936-1948 version (note the rounded snuffer bump on top by the hinge)