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#139875 - 07/16/08 09:11 PM Re: Mini Bic and Rock River 1W LED Light [Re: williamlatham]
billym Offline
Addict

Registered: 12/01/05
Posts: 616
Loc: Oakland, California
The key to drying and lighting a wet Bic is;
Shake off all water.
Blow into the top really hard to blow out the excess water.
NOW HERE IS THE TRICK; run the sparker wheel on your pant leg several times quickly without pushing the fuel release.
The lighter will now light.
This works 100% within 2 minutes for me.
Run one under the faucet at home and try it out.
Billy

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#140294 - 07/18/08 06:31 PM Re: Mini Bic and Rock River 1W LED Light [Re: billym]
Kart29 Offline
Stranger

Registered: 07/17/08
Posts: 19
Loc: Indiana
Funny this topic should come up. I was canoeing with some friends last weekend when we flipped the canoe. We clambered ashore to dump the water out of the canoe. I had no reason to light a fire but I looked into my emergency kit just to check the contents. Lots of water in there. I pulled out the lighter and it wouldn't light fer nothin'.

It was raining and my fingers were wet. I had just gone for an impromptu swim in the river so every stitch of fabric I owned was dripping wet. Running the flint wheel with my finger or on my pant leg just put more water on the flint wheel and didn't do a thing to help it dry. I had some strike anywhere matches in a match safe that were good and dry. But, I didn't have anything dry to strike them on. I guess I could have peeled some bark off a dry stick to find a dry surface to strike a match.

I do alot of canoeing and I tried many times to keep things dry in a zip-loc baggy. Nuh-uh. They almost always leak - not always but almost. I'd never trust a zip-loc to keep something dry for very long.

Based on this experience I did some experimenting and I found that I can take a fire steel and a greasy cotton ball, soak them in water to the point of being completely, sopping-wet waterlogged and still get a flame going in just a minute or two.

A lighter is always part of my basic fire starting kit. But I will now be sure to also take along a sparker rod and some vaseline cottonballs for those times when everything is wet. I guess there's commercial tinders out there, too, that claim to be waterproof. I've never tried them. You can try to keep your lighter and tinder dry if you want to. But, I'll bet eventually water is going to get to it one way or another. I prefer to keep something on hand that doesn't fail no matter how wet it gets.

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#140295 - 07/18/08 06:40 PM Re: Mini Bic and Rock River 1W LED Light [Re: Kart29]
Mike_H Offline
Addict

Registered: 04/04/07
Posts: 612
Loc: SE PA
Kart,

Thanks for relaying the information. Definitely some good knowledge from a first hand experience.

Mike
_________________________
"I reject your reality and substitute my own..." - Adam Savage / Mythbusters

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#140437 - 07/20/08 11:17 AM Re: Mini Bic and Rock River 1W LED Light [Re: Fitzoid]
Brangdon Offline
Veteran

Registered: 12/12/04
Posts: 1204
Loc: Nottingham, UK
Originally Posted By: Fitzoid
These Peanut Lighters are incredibly tiny and dunk-proof. They may be the smallest lighter going
They are quite wide, though - about half an inch across. This makes them uncomfortable to sit on in a back pocket.

Deal Extreme used to do thinner butane ones that were flat and roughly a quarter inch thick, eg http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10087 which I prefer. That one's a jet flame and not waterproof. They also do a flint ignition one that's the same thickness but wider, and which has a cap that covers the mechanism. The cap isn't sealed but is surprisingly good at keeping the water out. It also protects everything else from the grind-wheel and prevents accidental ignition or fuel leakage (as compared to a Bic with exposed mechanism).

Unfortunately the build quality isn't very high (but then the peanut rarely lights for me first time either), and there's no fuel window (again, the peanut lighter lacks that too). And DX don't seem to be shipping any butane lighters currently.
_________________________
Quality is addictive.

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#140459 - 07/20/08 04:42 PM Re: Mini Bic and Rock River 1W LED Light [Re: Brangdon]
climberslacker Offline
Youth of the Nation
Addict

Registered: 09/02/07
Posts: 603
Originally Posted By: brangdon
They are quite wide, though - about half an inch across. This makes them uncomfortable to sit on in a back pocket.


easy solution: Don't put it in your back pocket smile

I have the peanut lighter and I really like it, I also have another lighter from county comm thats really cool.

Also if you like your zippo but are looking at butane lighters they have this wich looks really cool ( I don't have it)

No affiliation except that I spend way too much time on their site.


Edited by climberslacker (07/20/08 04:42 PM)
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though i seek perfection, i wear my scars with pride

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#140482 - 07/20/08 08:23 PM Re: Mini Bic and Rock River 1W LED Light [Re: climberslacker]
Brangdon Offline
Veteran

Registered: 12/12/04
Posts: 1204
Loc: Nottingham, UK
I quite like the peanut lighter (although I had to replace the o-ring), but my back pocket is usually the only place I have room for something as rarely used as a lighter. They are also a bit fiddly, in that you have to unscrew the top to get them open, and then they are quite small to use, and it sometimes takes half a dozen or more attempts to light it. They aren't ideal if you have cold hands.

I don't like Zippos. Too unreliable (due to evaporation). I have a couple of of those other liquid fuel lighters (mine are from Imco) and they are certainly fun - especially the candle mode - but they also suffer from evaporation.
_________________________
Quality is addictive.

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#140483 - 07/20/08 08:27 PM Re: Mini Bic and Rock River 1W LED Light [Re: Brangdon]
Hacksaw
Unregistered


Peanut lighters work well on a lanyard. That's where mine usually lives.

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