Another lesson learned
I bought a few lighters in the local shop.
I tend to buy in bulk as they are either disposable or, if they are refillable they tend to eventually break.
I currently have a couple of refillable ones which are fine but Herself is in the habit of losing hers which means mine are in constant danger of being requisitioned. I needed a backup supply.
The Local Shop lighters were fine on the face of it – they were a simple click electronic ones with a refillable valve on the bottom. I stoked my pipe and tried the new lighter.
Shit!
This is a problem I hadn’t encountered before. Lighting the lighter didn’t produce a nice soft flame. It produced a miniature version of a F15 jet on full after-burner. The flame was almost invisible but the roar from the lighter and the shower of burning tobacco that shot out of my pipe bowl was testament to the force and heat of the invisible flame. I managed to extinguish all the small fires that had broken out on my clothing and armchair and had a rethink.
I tried again. I tamped down the tobacco and held the lighter about six inches away and pointed it in the direction of my pipe. It actually worked, though the problem was that the invisible flame was so needle sharp that it only lit a bit of the tobacco. I had to wave the lighter around in careful circles to fire up the entire bowl. A couple of times I nearly singed myself and I decided I preferred my old lighters.
I’ll leave the new blow-torches for Herself. It will be interesting to see what she makes of them. I’ll leave a fire extinguisher handy just in case.
I’m off now to the village to see it I can find something slightly less lethal.
Save those fierce ones for your creme caramels.
Yum.
They’re also handy if I run out of firelighters. That flame would melt steel.
In my pipe days, I used a Ronson with a switch on the side, and could fill and light up a batch of Gold Block at 70mph on the Sevenoaks Bypass with ease! The flame was controllable somehow…
Can you still get those chaps?
I haven’t seen them listed anywhere and I have done some fierce research on the subject in the past. I’m just sticking with Local Shop ones these days. Life is too short….
That’s a shame…
As an old friend used to mutter while he struck a match, “It always tastes better from the wood”!
That really is difficult at 70 mph…
Bic disposable here. The flame is just the right size.
I take it that the “new” armchair is now broken in with a few small burn holes.
The new furniture is for what might be termed “the parlor” i.e. the room that isn’t used except for special visitors such as the local parish priest. Seeing as I don’t know any priests and they don’t know me, it’s unlikely to be used for a while.