Thread: Anyone in to lighters?

Hey, I was just wondering if anyone around here was in to (cigarette/cigar) lighters, and if they know a good forum for them?

I have a couple of older lighters I'm trying to chase down some more history on. A Presto and an Impact. The Presto I was able to find a bit of patent information on, but no information on the company what so every, aside from that their proper name was Presto Lighters Limited and that the mechanism was developed by Doris Farmer. Nifty little mechanism too, it's like the old table lighters (with the spring loaded button you depress to pop open the snuffer and strike the flint.)

The Impact I can't even find the proper company name for, and no patent information at all (it uses the Zippo mechanism... so... yeah. :P)

Nice thing is, though, they're both still aspestos wicked, so none of this damn fiddling with wicks once a week like modern lighters. :P

Zippo for me,.. always liked them...

there is a thread that gets updated every now and then here that might have some info. I have not paged through it in a while

http://straightrazorpalace.com/finer...-lighters.html

I'm a fan of Zippos myself. There is an uncomplicatedness about them which is quite charming, not to mention their being quite utile.

I like zippos too. I recently picked up their butane torch thing- MPL or something like that- for my pipe and I love it. SWMBO likes to use it for candles too

I ordered a Zippo just 1-2 weeks ago. It has an etching on it showing the Destroyer my father served on during his time in the Navy here in Germany.
Hope it arrives soon, so I can give it to my Dad.

I did that for my dad. He's always wanted one, but never got one for some reason. Anyway, I had one engraved for him and he was so excited. As far as I know, he never goes anywhere without it. It was cool because it was a real gift that he loved. I'm sure your dad will love it too

What are those bars on the underside of the zippos for? Does it represent different grades of quality, or some kind of a date stamp?

The bottom of my zippo says Zippo bradford, pa and the year it was made.

I have one that has one slanted bar to the left of that, and another with 3 bars to the left and 2 bars to the right of "Zippo." Neither with the year of manufacture. Then again, I got these 25 years ago.

Originally Posted by RayG

I have one that has one slanted bar to the left of that, and another with 3 bars to the left and 2 bars to the right of "Zippo." Neither with the year of manufacture. Then again, I got these 25 years ago.

RayG, these bars are a code to identify the year your Zippo was made. The nomenclature changed from time to time.
Here you can see what these bars mean: Zippo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are also websites where you can type in the code and then you see when it's made.