Lighters to collect that were used in movies

OK, it was actually FIVE lighters that arrived today and at least two more on the way.... These are all 1950s lighters except for the Waldorf, which I think is a 1930s lighter.

I ran out of lighter fluid so I can't test the two I fixed. The one (Ronson Regal that looks like a UFO shaped flower on top) literally took 10 minutes to fix (cleared flint and it's ready and otherwise looks like it was never used it's so clean. That's the one from the jewelry store that said it was working and stopped. As I suspected, the flint was barely making contact and the rest stuck, but it cleared easily).

The 2nd one (Ronson Decor that looks like a UFO with landing gears and you can apparently change the "drape sample" inside to match your rooms' "decor" and hence the name, had a stuck flint that wasn't too bad, but a nasty stuck fuel cap. I was digging into it with my new file set when I went to turn it and it was loose... weird! Maybe the WD40 I wiped it with using a Q-Tip helped? Anyway, it's ready to test when I get some fluid.

Two others (Ronson Mayfair) are a pair set and are supposed to be brand new never used (haven't looked at them yet and no lighter fluid anyway).


The final one I got from Etsy that's pretty rare (there was one on there in excellent condition along with the "cup" (ashtray?) it usually came with that had a little bit of plating coming off the lip of the cup wanted over $155 and I didn't want to pay that for a Ronson table lighter so I found another that looked like the plating was intact, but very dirty figuring I could try to fix it up. Well, holy crap, it's awful. It's a Ronson Waldorf table lighter (1936) and it's got to be in the worst overall shape of any lighter I've ever purchased.
 
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Ronson Decor Lighter (lit photos later). Notice the fabric within. Supposedly you can open it and change it to any sample you want that you make fit in there to match your "decor". Notice how the "flying saucer" style lighter has landing gears on the bottom. The lighter itself is just that part in the middle. It pulls out and is just an insert for the rest of it.

Ronson Decor 01.jpg


Ronson Decor 02.jpg
 
Ronson Mayfair Lighter (stuck flints even in almost "new" condition.... It's just unbelievable how people install flints and let them sit in unused lighters until they lock the lighter up. Almost every single lighter I buy has stuck flints in them. People buy lighters and they think they're permanently "broke" because of this more than anything else. This lighter is TINY, by the way. If it were much smaller, it would be a pocket lighter. It's maybe 3 inches high total. There were two in the box. This is just one of them. They look identical.

Ronson Mayfair 01.jpg


Ronson Mayfair 02.jpg
 
Ronson Waldorf Lighter (1936)

The "Before" photo from the Etsy listing is a bit deceptive about how dirty it actually was except for the top which looks pretty accurate. I'm sure it's the lighting. Heck, now that I took the cleaned photos, it's pretty obvious why small, non detailed or non-sharp photos suck and are deceptive as to quality as the parts where the plating are off really show up in a closeup photo. It doesn't look nearly as bad to the eye as the photos below make it seem, IMO, but it's definitely worn. I've got it sparking finally, but it needs a new wick....

The main visual quality issues are the plating has come off in a few places, especially around the top. The snuffer and handle can be replaced with one from another "Adonis" lighter, but to match it would need to be silver plated, not chrome. I'm also not certain how to get that fulcrum shaft pin out of the back to remove the back handle button. It looks like you could just shove it out, but it doesn't budge. I'm sure there's a trick to it....

Issues:

1> It was dirty as hell. I spent almost two hours just cleaning the outside and while it went from OMG that's dirty to hey, that's pretty sharp looking, it's then I noticed there are some bits here and there where the plating has come off, notably on the bottom lip near where it goes vertical like a line and on parts of the button you press to activate it. But it does look 1000% better now.

2> The stuck flint from hell. This one made that last one I cleared seem like child's play. I just kept digging and digging between manually and a drill and it wasn't like I wasn't making progress, but it just kept going and going. Finally, when it did pop out, half the flint was still intact! That's like a brand new flint that was never used and got stuck. I had to dig through half of it before it let go.... Unbelievable.

3> I put it back together the way I thought it should go and...no spark. I'm going to check the manual again next to see how I managed to screw that up.

4> It looked like it had a wick that was lifting up, but felt kind of crappy. I pulled it up to cut the top off and it just came out. It was at the very bottom and so it needs a new wick and that means pulling freaking cotton out of the bottom of the lighter for god knows how long and trying to get a new wick through it.

5> The fuel door was not super stuck, but stuck enough to still cause consternation. I'm starting to think it wasn't worth it just to get one step closer to my strange "Zork" quest to get a complete Ronson table lighter set (not counting some early "DeLite" artwork sets as there's many and they're rare and mostly expensive, although I did get that New Yorker Baronet set recently. I don't know if I should bother with butane versions of similar lighters (well there's the Queen Anne; I already have the Crown Butane).

I'm worn out for one night. I'm kind of a perfectionist and hate leaving things unfinished, though but it's late and I can't do that wick tonight and I need to remember to stop and buy some lighter fluid on the way back from work tomorrow. I've gone through 2 bottles in the past 6 weeks (table lighters use tons of fluid compared to pocket lighters and I've added so many table lighters in the past couple of months).

"Before Photo" from Etsy:

Ronson Waldorf before photo.jpg


"After Photo" of Waldorf

Ronson Waldorf 01s.jpg


Ronson Waldorf 02s.jpg
 
I've still got 3 more lighters on the way still (two table lighters, the "Newport" (1947) and the "New Yorker Baronet Set" (1929) and a pocket lighter (another Adonis, but black with flowers in like new condition by the looks of the photos).
 
Now that I have another bottle of lighter fluid....

I give you the Ronson Waldorf lighter (1936) cleaned up and restored to working order with hard flint removed, spark wheel sharpened and new wick and packing installed. It lights 10/10 times.

Ronson Waldorf 03 Lit.jpg
 
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Ronson Mayfair Lighter Lit (For a lighter that otherwise looked unused, for example, the wick was untouched, not burned, but oddly there was a flint and flint dust in the cotton fuel chamber, probably because a previous owner couldn't figure out why it wasn't working and had no idea about stuck flints), it certainly had another horrible hard stuck flint that took an hour to drill through and I have two of these as a set so I have one more to drill through.... ugh). Notice how tiny this lighter is for a table lighter. It's almost pocket lighter size.


Ronson Mayfair 03 Lit.jpg
 
The Ronson Regal Lighter Lit (stuck flint here too, but this one came out easily. It looked otherwise virtually unused and even has clean full felt on the bottom and no scratches. It was ready in 10 minutes. They paid me $5 back for my time to fix it. I guess that's $30 an hour for 10 minutes work. That's nowhere near what I get paid to sit and read the Internet at work or play games on my phone until a machine breaks down (at which point I actually have to do some work to fix it), but still better than working at McDonalds, I suppose (for now).

Oh Ronson loved that flying saucer shape in the 1950s....

Ronson Regal 03 Lit.jpg
 
I finally took a closer look at the Ronson Rondelight "Queen Elizabeth Coronation" lighter (not sure it's a real Rondelight as it's an insert lighter into the rounded base) as a guest wanted to see it and I noticed the wick was in bad shape. Apparently, it wasn't "new" after all. Oh my. I think someone jammed a flint down that wick opening or something. I never saw a wick so stuck in my life. Even after I fished the rest of it (mostly unused) out of the bottom after removing all the cotton packing, it wouldn't budge. I eventually pulled so hard the wick snapped. I ended up having to find a drill bit that would fit the opening and drilled through whatever the heck it was.... I fished a new wick through (much harder than it seemed as I couldn't find the darn thing for the longest time) and repacked so I fueled it up and took a photo of it lit.

Ronson Queen Elizabeth II Rondelight Lighter 02 Lit.jpg
 
I went back and took another look at the Ronson Nordic marble base lighter as it didn't spark well and the snuffer didn't open all the way, which you can see in the old photo a couple of pages back. I despise this lighter because of the extra handle makes it hard to reassemble properly . I took it apart and and noticed the snuffer had a piece of metal loose which then promptly broke off, of course. Thank goodness I had that messed up spare that came with the lot and I was able to swap it for a good snuffer and swapped the big handle that had less wear on it on the top (but a little more on the side end, unfortunately). It's bloody well fixed now.... It works like a champ.

Ronson Nordic Marble Lighter 02 Lit.jpg
 
I bought this Ronson Adonis lighter cheap ($7) at an auction and it seemed to brand new looking in the photos. Well, it still had a stuck flint, but I was able to drill this one out from the bottom without disassembling. It was working like new inside 3 minutes.

Ronson Adonis Black Flower 01.jpg


Ronson Adonis Black Flower 02.jpg


Ronson Adonis Black Flower 03 Lit.jpg
 
The Ronson Newport table lighter (1947). I'm not sure if the plating is starting to come up after trying my silver polishing cloth on it or it had a clear coat or what. It's not in perfect condition, but for the price I paid, not bad. It's slightly taller than the Mayfair lighter, but still pretty small.

Ronson Newport 01.jpg


Ronson Newport 02.jpg


Ronson Newport 03 Lit.jpg
 
Some real fancy lighters for sure.:cool::cool: The only one I have is a woman's slim, stainless steel lighter. No brand, flint is gone (no wick, just an opening for the flame near a little wheel striking the flint) 3" long, 1/2" wide and 3/8" thick.
 
I was watching The Running Man (1987) and I noticed two lighters in it. The first one is hard to tell because it's from the side. It reminds me of a WIN lighter I have from that profile, except the igniter is clearly on the side, not the front. It may be a Colibri model. They had so many Quartz ignition models, many still made in the 1980s like that one in Blade Runner that's so hard to find.

Running Man Lighter 1.jpg


My Japanese WIN Lighter Profile Shot:

Win Lighter Held Side Lit2 s.jpg


The other appears to be a Dunhill Rollagas lighter with the silver bark pattern (a little easier to see the pattern detail on the new 4K transfer).

Running Man Lighter 2.jpg



My Dunhill Rollagas Lighter with Silver Bark Pattern

Dunhill Rollagas Silver Bark 02 Lit.jpg
Dunhill Rollagas Silver Bark 01.jpg
 
The Maltese Falcon Gutman Lighter (also seen with Bogart using it in Bullets & or Ballots). It's a 1929 Ronson New Yorker Lighter part of the Ronson Baronet Set. The one I received today looks to be in pretty decent shape for 93 years old, but the first thing I have to do is figure out how to remove the lighter from the tray. It's mounted pretty solid on there at the moment. I don't know if paint could be stuck or it slides onto a groove holder or what.

The Gutman Lighter
Maltese Table Top Gutman 03.jpg


In Scenes from The Maltese Falcon:

Maltese Falcon Gutman Lighter 02.jpg

Maltese Falcon Gutman Lighter 03.jpg


Maltese Falcon Gutman Lighter 01.jpg


The one I purchased that just arrived:

Ronson Baronet 01s.jpg



Ronson Baronet 02s.jpg
 

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