thnx for the kind words alex. and thnx for the welcome. i've been a huge fan of doug's ETS and this forum for many many years, just haven't been a member.

while i'm not a smoker, i do use it every few days for starting fires in the wood stove, lighting slash piles & burn-barrel fires, melting ends of webbing, sterilizing needles to remove splinters, lighting candles, etc.

the peanut shell i have on the one shown was handmade by a guy over at EDCF named DeanJ (no longer in production) which has a very fine fit between the two halves, yet no gasket. even after 6 months i find i still have fluid in it.

the standard peanuts i have in different survival kits all have o-rings and even they light immediately after six moinths. maybe i'm just lucky...

and i've had better luck with the peanuts over any butane lighter, disposable or high quality.

here's a fun vid of a dunking test: Lighter Comparison - Peanut, Mini Bic, Butane

and an informative old ETS thread HERE

i've been using these peanuts for a long time. in fact i "discovered" the peanut lighter via a tiny ebay ad in 2007, ordered one from china and was the first to review it in a number of forums, info which helped CC and others to import them for us all.

for those not familiar with them, here are the pixs i did of my first one: