For years I have been having problems with pipe lighters.

I have tried quite a few and the nearest I got was the Peterson. The only problem with the Peterson was that it was a tad unreliable. I managed to get through three of them.

Thanks to my good friend Yiorgos over at jamesfox.ie I have two new ones.

The first is a bit of a conundrum. It’s official name is Passatore Leonard but searching around it is identical to a Corona one. That apart, it’s a beauty.

It’s brass and has a lovely solid feel to it. It has the feel of the kind of engineering you’d find in an old steam engine. Each piece has a solid positive motion with no wiggling or looseness. The epitome of precision engineering. The only problem I have found so far is that it gives no warning before the gas runs out. Click – normal flame. Click – nothing.

The second lighter is a Corona.

Strangely enough, I couldn’t find an image of my version on-line and I couldn’t be bothered messing with cameras. Mine is much the same as the one above apart from one small difference – there is a little slide on the side to extinguish the flame. For the absent minded, it’s an excellent way to set fire to your trouser pocket.

Is this the end of my quest for a lighter that actually works and is reliable?

Time will tell.

Incidentally, in case anyone thinks I have gone over to the dark side, this isn’t a sponsored post. Yiorgos doesn’t even know I’m writing this.

And there is no point in trying to find the lighters above on the James Fox website.

They don’t sell them