Metal Sparklite....thanks

Well I just unwrapped a nice present from a fellow ETS’er. Somehow I missed out on the metal Sparklite event from a while back…don’t ask me how I missed it, but a kind fellow has remedied that situation for me.



I only had the plastic version Sparklite in my Ritter pocket kit, and admittedly never used it. I was always somewhat afraid to carry and use these devices as they were not refillable…a real “too bad” in my view. Well these new (old) ones fix that issue.

I will give these a bit more of a run now that I have perpetual well-made models. I think I may tuck one with some tinder in a K&M matchcase…or even see if I can find my Reeve Aviator and finally put something in its handle.

Thanks Chris.

*drools politely*

And for those of us who missed it, Triple Aught Design has something similar that is surprisingly in stock. THAT is the sign of rare- when you get the TAD equivalent more readily. *laughs*

The SPARKLITE in the right of Randy's photo is the super rare

Solid milled brass. These were the first run when Oak finalised

the design. The military in it's wisdom figured plastic would

wiegh less.

Very nice. Wow, solid brass. You could buff that up very nicely. Hey, if you're going to be lost, at least do it in style, right?

I've never handle a Sparklite, so a question. What's in that little capsule container? Flints? And does the wheel have to be removed with the hex wrench to replace the flints, if that is indeed what they are? Or is the wrench for some other purpose?

Sparklites have a fixed striking wheel. The flints are held inside the handle by small springs and steel plungers.

With the current plastic service issue, once the flint is used up(remember that means thousands of sparks)that's it. Everything is sealed inside the plastic.

The prototype brass units had a small threaded dial, much like a wristwatch to access the spring and plunger assembly. The test run of aluminum went to a tiny hex thread- hence the wrench. The tiny vial holds standard lighter flints.

This is something Oak wants to produce for the civilian market.
It's a matter of enough market interest, which we may help?

These really are much nicer in my view than the plastic version. Even though there are hundreds of sparks in the plastic....you just don't know when it is finished.

For a pocket kit though it is perfect for size and since it is not in constant use likely to be ready when you are.

I added a small ferro rod to my Ritter kit so to have my "normal" firetool.

I can see a real market for the metal Sparklites....enough of a market to make the manufacturer happy...well who knows, but they are certainly an improvement over the plastic version.

Just curious, For those of you who have both, is the knurled screw on the bottom better/nicer than the hex screw? It just seems it would be one less piece to get lost. On the other hand it might be more likely to come out when you did not want it too. Any experience?

I also wonder if you could drill out the bottom of one of the plastic ones and put a little bolt in there just like on these? It might be worth a try if you had one that was used up. They are pretty thin so it might weaken them too much.

If you look at a plastic unit there are two halves and a baseplug.These are all heat welded to very close tolerances to give correct tension and wheel spin. So no, drilling one would make a mess of things.

The rare brass units are certainly beautifull pieces of machining.
There is a susceptability of the brass on brass threading to
freeze up with time. the aluminum units have that neat hex key.
Replacing flints is going to be an exercise in care with a clean surface to catch small parts.

I thought the plastic units a little more 'grippy' vs the smooth aluminum. So I did the hand in icewater and make a SPARKLITE fire test and found no real difference.

I looked at the Sparklites (or equivelant) available on the Triple Aught Design website (i.e. the one in OD green and the orange one) and I'm almost certain they are plastic (not the metal ones). Can anyone confirm they only have plastic Sparklites?

I'm a newbie and do not understand something about lighter terminology. Very knowledgable persons on this website will state that they get "hundreds of sparks" out of their Sparklites? When they say sparks, do they mean strikes? I ask because I get many dozens, if not hundreds "sparks" each time I strike the sparklite.

My last question deals with the shelf life of the lighter flints. I remember having problems many years ago with a couple lighters where the flints broke up over time, and acutally ruined the lighters by causing the striker to bind. I remember being told then that lighter flints (such as Zippo and Ronson) go bad over time in that they break up. I just noticed on the Zippo website that they now expressly give a lifetime guarantee on their flints (which I thought could mean that at least Zippo has fixed the problem). Has anyone had a problem with flints going bad in their Sparklites? If so is there a shelf life to the Sparklites?

Those are plastic SPARKLITES.

By sparks we mean each turn of the wheel producing a light show.

Properly speaking, the flints are the small rods being sparked by the wheels.

Yes, a poorly made wheel can decompose. Even SPARKLITE suffered from a small batch of defective units they made good on.

My brass sparklites are Vietnam era, and have held up better than my other stuff from that period.

Keep them clean and dry and they should last a long,long time.

Just to set the record straight, a few months ago they changed the design of the standard Spark-Lite to incorporate a threaded plastic plug, similar in concept to the limited run of aluminum ones they did. The purpose wasn't to make the flint replaceable, though I suppose it now is, but rather to make the assembly more reliable.

Bully.

With this recent mod I think they may have a winner. The plug may not have been intended to make it so the flint can be replaced. But hey, it works.

I would love to get a titanium Spark-Lite with a stainless steel screw/plug on the bottom that could be opened with a standard flat screw driver, coin, knife blade, ect. It would also be nice if it was slightly longer to allow for a better grip and more stored flint. It could even be given a pocket clip like a pen.

With steel on titanium you wouldn't have to worry about the threads binding/locking, it would be a stronger design than aluminum, it would still be just as lightweight as aluminum, and the flints would easily be user replaceable.

A lot of backpacks have slots for pens on the inside and a spark-lite designed like I have mentioned above would be just about perfect for those slots.

Hey, that's another thought.....a spark-lite combined with a Fischer space pen. Keep that special pen with your notebook and you have a ready source of paper for tinder as well.

I've created a monster!

For the record, my kits all have plain vanilla plastic units.

Now, a strawblued unit with my initials in rose gold and.....

One can always dream, right?

One thing I found about the metal sparklites is that the wheel is MUCH sharper than the plastic one. I tried once to use it for lighting natural tinder, and tore my thumb up after a few turns. The plastic one I had so such trouble.

I also find them just a touch too short to use comfortable with anything but the tinder them come with. But, that's easy enough to rectify.

I'm in -that should be enough to drive the production

Pete

Or a clip for a lanyard?

No, monster would be a a sparklite that was 4" long, .75" square, and used a length of .5" ferro rod for the flint. *grins* Not THAT would be a monster.

Better- 1" square, with a magnesium shroud over a brass or aluminum core, so you can scrape shavings off to spike a tinder bundle but know when you are scraping as far as you can.