Thread: Lighters: Your Weapon of Choice

I guess I didn't state my preference in my original post, at least not directly....

Wood match or splint for me, both for cigars and pipe. I gave up cigarettes last year, but for them I used to use either a Zippo or regular ol' Bic.

I prefer using a butane for cigars since I tend to over do it with a zippo or single match. I have used the three match method and it does work well, but it's difficult with the wind at night.

Originally Posted by ShavedZombie

Illegal?

I can think of a few obvious guesses but I'd rather not let my ignorance shine too brightly... Why would those be illegal?

somewhat off subject.. but when i was a kid.. we'd cut the heads off strike anywhere matches and stuff them in a tennis ball with a small incision in it.. when packed tightly enough you could throw them at something and they'd burst into flame on contact.. those were the days when you'd download instructions for all kinds of nonsense on the bbs.. i can remember trying to make napalm at the age of 13... we were idiots.

I prefer to use matches where possible, just to keep the flavour of the cigar and not add any petrolly or sulfur smells.

You can still get strike anywhere matches here in the UK. I use to try and strike them on the heel of my shoe, my stubble, fingernails and so on..!

Its funny the stuff you do as a kid. Its usually stupid, but usually good fun as well!

Something we did a couple of times when out shooting was to put a litre of petrol in a 2L coke bottle, then shoot it with a shotgun. The first shell was a normal one, but the second was a tracer.... To this day I've never seen fireballs like that anywhere else!

French trips usually involved getting the little bangers, which were always a laugh. We made a sandcastle in a sand pit in Paris and blew it up with these bangers. Just about emptied the whole sandpit out.

A mate of mine made a capacitor cannon by running a variac through a load of capacitors wired the wrong way round. That thing was lethal: Dodgy wiring, huge voltages and explosions.

And then there was the fun we used to have making thermite mix...

Hehe! Yep, definately stupid!

I bought 10 boxes of Diamond Strike anywhere matches off ebay today, don't know how come they got into Australia, maybe customs day off, anyway got the lot of 10 bucks plus a couple for postage !! Reckon it was the brand I used when visiting mates in Utah !!

Cheers

the only way to torch up is either a well worn Zippo with a story behind it, or a strike anywhere match one handed with the thumbnail like Steve McQueen

I used to light those matches off my teeth. It sounded like a good idea at the time.....

Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

I used to light those matches off my teeth. It sounded like a good idea at the time.....

hahaha, followed by viscious coughing fit from inhaling a ton of sulphur

S.T. Dupont and/or long ceder matches.

Originally Posted by wdwrx

I've got an old Zippo circa 1986, bought for me buy my first "real" girlfriend, but I hate the taste it imparts to anything. Plus it was always a PITA; out of fluid, or over filled and giving me a chemical burn, but nothing in between. Even worse, I've found that under the right wind conditions, that freaking flame could swirl around and give one heck of a burn!

I don't know if you've tried it with the new reformulated fuel (black container), but several members of Smoker's Forums have reported it takes care of the taste problem for them. (I can't say, as I didn't notice it in the first place, but I know it's a common complaint.) I used to have the problem of my Zippo always running out of fluid, but someone -- again, at SF --told me about applying a thin layer of petroleum jelly all around the lower half of the insert when refilling. Apparently it keeps the fluid from evaporating through the gap. I now refill every weekend and have no problems in between.

It will probably be evident that I am a big fan of Zippos. I almost always use one, and an occasional match. Pipes almost exclusively -- the last cigar I smoked was with my future son-in-law last summer.

Oh, and by the way, not to keep yammering on, but you know you can get a pipe insert for the Zippo, right? Controls the flame, helps prevent charring the rim of the bowl. A capacious briar, a good Virginia/Perique, a well-filled Zippo pipe lighter; one needs little else.

~Rich