Thread: Lighters

In my experimenting with pipes and cigars, I also did a little experimenting with lighters. I thought I'd share some information I gathered from my experiences, and I'd encourage others to share what they know as well.

I was smoking cigars before pipes, so my first lighter was a cigar lighter. It is a relatively inexpensive lighter made by Vector/KGM. It's a single flame, torch style lighter, and it's not a flint lighter (electric? quartz? I don't remember). It's rather small, which means it has a pretty small fuel tank, but it's pretty sleek and I like it.

I then started smoking pipes, and needed a new lighter. Lighting a pipe with a torch style lighter is a terrible idea; you will burn your pipe and the "wind" off the flame will prevent a proper light.

I started off using matches, and they are a great option if you get ones that are wood. Make sure you let the surfer burn completely before trying to light the pipe, or you'll end up with the scent contaminating your bowl. Also, you'll likely need to use a few matches to get the pipe going. The two main selling points of matches, in my opinion, is that they are cheap and you can get the flame all the way into your bowl for late relights.

The next thing that I tried was a Zippo. The older Zippo fuel would contaminate tobacco with it's fumes, but the new fuel claims that this won't happen. That is a lie. While the new fuel might not be as bad, I still ended out dumping the tobacco I light with the Zippo and I had a mild taste for a few bowls after. I had a normal style Zippo, not the pipe version; my gf actually gave it to me. Looks like I wasted $4 on Zippo fuel, but it's still a decent lighter to have for other purposes and the actual lighter was free.

I then thought I'd turn to trusty old Ebay to see what was out there and if I couldn't get my hands on something I'd like. The result was the purchase of a pipe lighter made by a company called JJJ. I haven't found any info on them, other than that they are based out of Japan. I've got to say, I quite like this lighter. It has a thumb rolling flint system, and produces a small, soft flame that I find works great. The flame adjustment is easily accessible as well, and that is a plus. I'd imagine that it doesn't hold much fuel, but since it is a soft flame it still lasts for quite a while (I haven't actually refilled mine yet). The downsides are that it sometimes takes a few attempts to get it lit (I think it's just an old flint) and it's quite hard to light in any wind. All in all, I really like it.

While I was impatiently waiting for my JJJ, I came across a Zippo lookalike by Vector/KGM that uses butane and produces a soft flame. It's called the Thunderbird. I decided to get one. I bought a pipe version, so the hole is on the side of the chimney. Since the lighter was advertised to fit into any Zippo case, I gave it a try. It does indeed fit into my Zippo case, but the Zippo does not fit into the Thunderbird case. Oh well. It's a great lighter, but there are two things I don't like. The screw to adjust the flame is located on the bottom of the lighter, so it has to be removed from the case to make an adjustment. Also, the flame can only be turned down a certain extent, and it's still a bit higher that I'd like.

Here are some pictures, so you can see what I'm talking about.