Zippo lighters.

[model70hunter]

My wife loves music, right after me I think.

I found a Pink Floyd zippo and gave it to her. She was thrilled to little pieces. We don't often go to bars, but guess where she left it? I drove back but it was gone. I found another neat one with a guitar. It came up missing. I got her a silver one, Gone. She uses BICs now and by the blister pack. Don't smoke much but they grow legs and walk away or so she says.

 

[opaul]

An oldie but a goodie, never had lighter fluid in it.

 

[chaparrito]

I have several knocking around in drawers including my father's with an Engineer Corps gold insignia soldered to it. Haven't smoked in years but I still have one in my range bag-tackle box- glove box most of the time. Can't say I ever remember one leaking in my pocket as long as I didn't overfill it. I gave one to my idiot son for camping. The dipstick uses it to smoke cigarettes.

 

[JM4151]

Zippo

In addition to lighters Zippo produces nice reasonably priced pens. I have one that I enjoy writing with. You can pull them up on the Zippo wed site.

 

[bearman49709]

I've carried one in my pocket for over fourty years and find the best way to keep from geting fuel burns is to not over fill them!

 

[Bullet Bob]

Mine:

I had a recently deceased friend, a life long smoker and Zippo user, who collected Vietnam era Zippo's. Like many people who've never been in the military, he was fascinated by it. He used to buy Zippo's that were actually used by U.S. troops in Vietnam way before it was the cool thing to do. Once the cost started rising, he quit collecting. He used to keep his in a nice display case, and I would have liked to have bought it when he died as a memento, but I know his brother/executor was tighter than a tick, and would have wanted a fortune for them, so I didn't even ask.

 

[litenlarry]

In the 60's and 70's , a Zippo was always in my pocket..I am surprised no one has mentioned having a extra flint or two under the pad where lighter fluid is put in..Never know when the flint will wear out..

 

[DeadAye]

In the 60's and 70's , a Zippo was always in my pocket..I am surprised no one has mentioned having a extra flint or two under the pad where lighter fluid is put in..Never know when the flint will wear out..

Uhh - That would have been back at post #26

Ya know, thinking about it, a Zippo has a very distinctive "CLINK" noise when you open it. Nothing else like it.

I had several. My first, silver, was a high school graduation present from my big brother.

You can light a Zippo in a fairly strong wind, unlike a Bic.

Used to store the flints down under the first layer, whatever it was, over the wadding.

A very satisfying lighter, all around.

 

[Brian41]

I used Zippos for years and hated it when you overfilled them and got the leg burn. My last one was a Marlboro giveaway back when I used to smoke them. Replaced the hinge pin myself on it but it later gave up the ghost and never replaced it. I've used Bics since but after reading this I think I might get another Zippo.

 

[GatorFarmer]

Zippos are good at lighting cigarettes...and fuses. Though now that Fire Safe Cigarettes ruined the joy of smoking...that still leaves fuses. Though to be fair handrolling works.

Some people say the naptha fumes ruin or at least taint a good cigar. There may be some truth to this. But it won't harm a Dutch Masters or Wolf Brothers Rum Crook.

I never liked one for lighting a pipe. I had a butane fueled German pipe lighter for that. It was like a mini blowtorch. But I always wore them out burning spiders off the walls. That was before I had a flamethrower.

Try to use the more expensive Zippo black fluid in the can. It works better and burns cleaner than the yellow plastic bottle Ronson stuff. Better refining I suppose. You can also run them on 90 percent rubbing alcohol or even grain alcohol. Do not use charcoal lighter fluid. Too much water in it.

All that said, these days I prefer a waterproof plastic container with strike anywhere matches in it. People used to think that I had some sort of magical powers because I could strike a match off a wall. True story.

I remember a Twilight Zone or something, where they were betting on whether a Zippo could strike ten times in a row. If you won, you won big. If you lost, you lost a finger. Or did I do that one time. I forget.

Vietnam era, there is a famous photo of a soldier or Marine using his Zippo to light a Vietnamese hut on fire. At one point flame thrower tracks were called Zippos.

 

[H Richard]

I used a zippo for years, and still have one somewhere. I recall when in the USAF we used to use JP4 jet fuel for lighter fluid. It worked, but took a lot of strikes to get it going. JP4 is not as flammable as lighter fluid.

 

[Marshwheeling]

I used to carry a zippo when I smoked cigarettes, but I'd rather use butane for my cigars.

None of my Zippos has survived, but I do have a Chinese imitation with a pic of 'Our Illustrious Chairman'. It;s still in the box, a gift from a neighbor kid who was an exchange student to Peking. I have no idea if it works.

 

[Cyrano]

At one point flame thrower tracks were called Zippos.

I don't know about flame thrower trucks, but in WW II the Germans called the M4 Sherman Tank 'Ronson' because they burned pretty well when hit by 88s because of the 100 octane aviation fuel their air cooled, radial engines used.

 

[GatorFarmer]

I don't know about flame thrower trucks, but in WW II the Germans called the M4 Sherman Tank 'Ronson' because they burned pretty well when hit by 88s because of the 100 octane aviation fuel their air cooled, radial engines used.

The version of the story I heard was that it was British tank crews, with gallows humor, that called Shermans Ronsons, after the slogan light first time, every time. Oddly, German evaluations of a captured M4 in Italy loved the thing and wished they had one. Grass is always greener....

A late war Sherman flamethrower tank seems to have also had the nickname of Zippo.

Ironically, there was a Ronson flamethrower system out of Canada. Adopted into U.S. service it was mounted on some LVTs and M3 light tanks for the Marines. In American service it was dubbed the Satan when on M3 conversions. I think the LVTs may have been called Ronsons.

Anyway, it was the M132 of the Vietnam era that was called the Zippo. It was the flamethrower variant of the M113. I think David Drake, "Hammers Slammers" et al, wrote about riding one during a thunder storm.

The USMC had a flame thrower variant of the Patton tank, the M67, that was dubbed the Zippo as well. The Army may have had some of these as well.

 

[BAM-BAM]

I have my great grandpa's that was made in 73' (I think, got to check the date chart.)

Shorty45..."great grandpa's" zippo??? ....

I hope you are talking about 1873!!!!


... thanks for making me feel really, really OLD!!!!!!!!!

 

[Shorty 45 MK2]

Shorty45..."great grandpa's" zippo??? ....

I hope you are talking about 1873!!!!


... thanks for making me feel really, really OLD!!!!!!!!!

Haha. No, but it was given to him in the mid 1970's. (a couple of years before he passed.) if it makes you feel better he did live to be 97.

 

[BAM-BAM]

Haha. No, but it was given to him in the mid 1970's. (a couple of years before he passed.) if it makes you feel better he did live to be 97.

Only a little; as both of my Grandfather's passed in the 70s at 80 and 88 IIRC........ and "Recalling Correctly" seems to be getting tougher..... after your earlier post!!!!

 

[charlie sherrill]

Shortly after posting on this thread I walked into one of my favorite gun stores. The owner was sorting through a box of about 50 Zippo lighters that he had just gotten from a widow. I looked through them and bought three of them for $30.00 that were marked with Navy ships. I kept one marked U.S.S. Wisconsin and sold the other two for $125.00 and $75.00. I called Junior and he came down and bought several more. One of those had a Sea Bee's name and rank and a map of Viet Nam engraved on it. Junior researched his name and found where he had passed away not far from here. Maybe his widow was the one that sold them?

 

[Cyrano]

The version of the story I heard was that it was British tank crews, with gallows humor, that called Shermans Ronsons, after the slogan light first time, every time. Oddly, German evaluations of a captured M4 in Italy loved the thing and wished they had one. Grass is always greener....

A late war Sherman flamethrower tank seems to have also had the nickname of Zippo.

Ironically, there was a Ronson flamethrower system out of Canada. Adopted into U.S. service it was mounted on some LVTs and M3 light tanks for the Marines. In American service it was dubbed the Satan when on M3 conversions. I think the LVTs may have been called Ronsons.

Anyway, it was the M132 of the Vietnam era that was called the Zippo. It was the flamethrower variant of the M113. I think David Drake, "Hammers Slammers" et al, wrote about riding one during a thunder storm.

The USMC had a flame thrower variant of the Patton tank, the M67, that was dubbed the Zippo as well. The Army may have had some of these as well.

Thanks, GatorFarmer. The Germans also called the British-manned M4s "Tommy Cookers".

 

[JayCeeNC]

Surprised nobody has mentioned this, but you can "date" your old Zippo by interpreting the dots and slashes on the base:

Zippo : Date Codes