All About Pocket Knives

Anybody here collecting ZIPPO lighters? I've got a pile of them mint in the packages. Mostly ZIPPO Collectable of the Year lighters and lighter sets. Let me know.

I carried and used ZIPPO's for years but now I'm back to one of those BIC whore-house lighters. Really have a hard time finding fluid and flints for the ZIPPO's. Never really rotated my ZIPPO's, nor my knives for that matter, usually just stuck to one that would give me some bragging rights. This is the last one I carried and carried it for a long time. 1949-1951 with chrome plated brass case and nickel-silver insert.
In late 1951, due to the need for brass during the Korean War, ZIPPO switched to a chrome plated steel case, just as they did for WWII

This is the Zippo I bought at MCB 29 Palms in the spring of 1963 and carried until I quit smoking in the spring of 1995. When I bought her the FMF-PAC crest had colored enamel where the brass is. She used a straight pin as a hinge pin for quite a few years and went back to Zippo once for a rebuild. There were a few Bics mixed in over the years but this old girl saw a lot of pocket time during that 32 years. I lost her twice while I was in the Corps, but because of my initials on the back, she always came back.

That's a great old keep-sake, Jerry, and still very serviceable. I think that I still have a couple of Vietnam era ZIPPO's left. One's a "shorty". Never could understand the priciple behind them since they're not that big to begin with.
I had bought an engraved Vietnam ZIPPO on ebay several years ago and, believe it or not, I found the original owner and sent it back to him. He said that he had bought the lighter and had it engraved for his birthday but had not seen the lighter since being carried wounded, off the battlefield in Vietnam. He was a tanker and lives in Hawaii.

I too like those "shorty's" T.J. I also do not get their purpose but they look neat.


We went to Viet Nam as a complete unit. We pulled into the compound on 31 August 1965, unloaded off the deuce-&-halfs and the guys that had been there for only six months climbed on those trucks and left. We were now Alpha Battery 1st LAAM Bn and were not going home in six months. Marines (as well as all other branches of the military) have their priorities so one of the first things we did was take up a collection and stock the new EM Club with beer. It was decided the club should be in the end of the Motor Transport tent. Two months later some brainiac must have figured out this thing wasn't going to be over with anytime soon and it was going to be a logistical nightmare trying to get two entire Battalions up to T.O. every year (one in Da Nang and one in Chu Lai). I don't know if it was the same brainiac or a brainiac in training that came up with the plan but they decided to split us up and do this huge Chinese Fire Drill and transfer a bunch of troops to mix up the Battalions roster and make it easier to find replacements at rotation time. So a couple of truck loads of us were transferred up to Bravo Battery 1st LAAM Bn on Monkey Mountain. All that to say this. Sometime later someone came around to all the guys that had been in Alpha Battery and gave us each one of these lighters. Said it was what we got when the EM Club down at Alpha Battery was broke up and reformed with the guys that were there now. Cheap aluminum Storm King that had been engraved with the unit name. Thought it was pretty neat at the time. I kind of wish now that I hadn't carried it.

TJ- You can find Zippo fluid and flints allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll day long on ebay.

Just an FYI!

tjmurphy wrote:Anybody here collecting ZIPPO lighters? I've got a pile of them mint in the packages. Mostly ZIPPO Collectable of the Year lighters and lighter sets. Let me know.

.....t. j.,only one I've got that may be worth something is the "Memphis belle" pinup girl painted by vargas....... .................

I have several Zippo's, I quit smoking years ago so i keep them in a drawer. I have thie Zippo from the service, it is my ship's lighter. ftd

Picture Ferg. Were you on the same ship for your entire enlistment?

I was on this ship for 3 1/2 years before being transfered to the U.S.S. Lockwood before I was discharged. The Anderson D.D. 786 was in the movie The Cain Mutiny in 1954, all the ship scenes were shot on that ship. ftd

I love being on board ship but even at that, I think after 3½ years it would get old.

My first shipboard experience was in 1964 when we went to Spain as part of Operation Steel Pike aboard the MSTS General R.M. Blachford.

I went back to a Zippo for camping. Just nicer to whip out the Zippo and flick open the cover and fire it up. Has more style. Sure they're a bit inconvenient, but I like the old school feel.

I quit smoking about 15 years ago but still have my Zippos. I even have a few new prototypes. If you order enough Zippos you can buy them direct which I did for years when I managed chain of smoke shops. My Zippo sales rep was a World War II Marine and he gave me lots of special deals. I would give him 2 or 3 designs and he would bring me back samples and I would choose the one I wanted to have made and keep the sample prototypes.

I'll have to get some of my Zippos out and take pictures. I still have the Zippo pipe later I carried fishing, it worked well in the wind. Indoors I mostly used a butane pipe lighter so my pipe didn't taste like lighter fluid.

I do have one of the pedestal model Zippo with the scrimshawed ship on the plastic onlay.
I also have the Nimrod Sportsman pipe lighter, the one that looked like a bolt. I think they stop making that around 1990. It was a competitor Zippo, not a Zippo product.

I have a small collection, started in late 80's.
will have to get a pic soon. Wish I had my
granddads.... I have his flints!
tj, flints and fluid usually at walmart or a drugstore..

Hey Jody, thanks a lot. The wife just walked in the door and said she got me a can of lighter fluid Bless her little pea-pickin' heart

I'm not a smoker, occasional cigar or pipe, but I do have a couple zippo lighters. Growing up on the farm daddy always said two things you can't farm without are a case pocket knife and a zippo lighter. I've used one a lot burning rope ends, thawing out the frozen snaps in gate locks, etc...

A zippo lighter is like a good stockman pocket knife, a right handy tool.

My kids went together and got me this one back in about 1982. They had it simply inscribed "Dad" and it has always been one of my most prized possessions. I carried it for a few years before retiring it and going back to my "Plain Jane" one that has been rebuilt/replaced twice since I bought the first one in 1972.
WB

My EDC Zippo:

My new EDC ZIPPO from my grand-daughter, Sydney
Before this one, I carried this 1949-50 ZIPPO

Got it and replied

I don't smoke and never have but I still have a couple Zippo's on my shelf and will buy another if one should catch my eye.

Very knice Tom!


WAZU....love your edc Case Zippo! That kicks ASS!

I'm using a TEAM REALTREE Zippo foir lighting my cigars (of which I will do in 5 minutes ).