I took a punt on Facebook Marketplace on a lamp which I thought was a Coleman. It turns out to be a Veritas Superb, ID'd thanks to the pics in the Gallery. The heatshield is badly rusted & I can't see a date stamp as yet - it's had a quick dip in a citric acid bath. The only other clue is that the scant remajns of the sticker has an elephant above the main logo. How should i go about cleaning the burner assembly - or is this a pointless exercise? The globe does not have a logo so may be a replacement. TIA, Paul.
Hi Paul, good lanterns I believe. A picture paints a thousand words, is there any chance of a photo please? It may help those with Veritas experience answer your question.
I have a Superb with a rusty globe support and you can read the date stamp in certain light conditions - it's that hard to see! Depending on its condition of course, these lanterns are good, bright runners and easy to work on. In my opinion they are more like a Coleman that most British made models and often underrated. As others have said, a few photos will help.
Yes, when you know where to look, reasonably easy to see on my best VS, stamped on the globe support baseplate between the lighting hole and the air intake pipe:- March 1953. You'd be struggling once the baseplate got dirty or rusty...
Interesting. The date on mine is (very) slightly to the right of the air intake tube and I can only make out three digits. No image from me because my camera has stopped working but the numbers are stamped thus, 556 with no space between the digits unlike those on @David Shouksmith example. Henry.
Finally got some pics. Under the grime I found the Veritas logo on the glass, confirming that it is a Superb. There is no date stamp left on the heatshield - tinworm has seen to that. The hood seems to have suffered from the curse of Vauxhall Corsa Red - really dull finish. I've tried T-cut with no improvement - any hints on restoring the enamel - or is it beyond salvation & needs some brake caliper paint? Paul.
I was surprised to read about the problems people have with the VS. Once I fixed a fuel leak from the control needle - there was no packing, improvised a Tilley-style gland washer - it lit with no problems with a single preheat and kept on going until I turned it off a good couple of hours later. Using a Butterfly 500cp mantle as I have plenty and it works just fine.
I wouldn't have thought something designed to restore paint would have much effect on vitreous (i.e. glass !) enamel. You could try polishing with Autosol. For the umpteenth time, paint that will stand up to the temperatures that lantern hoods are subjected to has not yet been invented. Brake Caliper paint, engine paint, barbecue paint, Yahoo Super Dooper Exceedingly Extreme High Temperature paint will fail ! O.K. for a shelf queen but a waste of time and money on a user. Henry.
@Henry Plews You forgot “Bloke Down the Road Reckons this is the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread” paint. Tony
I've cleaned up three more of my Superbs today - on two of them the baseplate was too rusted to see any date but on the third, the numbers 1057 appear (with no gap as in Henry's example and similarly positioned). Thus October 1957...
@Tony Press Gosh, so I did. Ah, now I remember, my good Lady distracted me with "would you like a cup of tea dear ?" Henry.
The great thing about being a regular member of this site is the combined knowledge of it's member. Ask almost any lantern related question and someone will know the answer. This is the reason we can be so confident that no amount of searching will turn up a special type of paint that can withstand the extreme temperatures experienced by lantern hoods - it won't. On this site we have analytical chemists, engineers or many different types, metallurgists and many many other specialists. We have seen too many enamel hoods stripped, repainted with something that supposedly withstands high temperatures, only to be discarded when it pealed, bubbled and flaked off after one or two lightings. This is particularly upsetting if it is done to a rare old hood that is virtually irreplaceable The only surface treatments capable of withstanding the extreme temperatures found above and around a lantern burner are: 1 Vitreous enamel 2 Metal plating such as nickel, chrome or (maybe) speculum metal 3 Bare brass that has been allowed to tarnish such as is found on Bialaddin and Vapalux models Hoods can be re-enamelled but it's very costly. They can also be re-plated in some very limited cases, but painting a hood with ANYTHING will fail, no matter what the description on the side of the tin says. As an example, tell me how many gas stove burners are painted pretty colours - and I mean the parts that the flame directly touches... the answer is none!
Thanks guys. That leaves me with the question of how to get the enamel looking halfway decent. I've tried T-Cut and Autosol, both with a cloth and with a felt polishing wheel, to very little noticeable difference. Other than abrasive papers and steel wool & scourers all I have left to try is a citric acid bath. It's annoying as the hood is in reasonable condition apart from the overall dullness of the enamel. Sounds like I'll be looking for a scrapper with a good hood on ebay. BTW, is the tank plating the same speculum as used on older Tilleys? There are a few areas where the brass is showing through but it's otherwise in good condition. Paul.
With respect, I think you're on a bit of a 'fools errand' here. Vitreous enamel is, effectively, glass and once it's damaged there's very little that can be done to reverse that. I suppose it's possible to polish out the micro-scratches with progressively finer and finer abrasive polishes but the time, effort and expense just wouldn't be worth it. I'm wondering here whether you want a 'user' or a 'display' lantern - you generally can't have both. Any lantern that's used frequently will progressively deteriorate. The enamel on a lantern hood was never meant to last for ever and eventually, with use, it will break down and flake off. So what tends to happen is that defects in enamel are tolerated by we enthusiasts until a better example comes along. This is why, when I lit my more-or-less mint Superb recently, I substituted worn and/or used parts for anything above the mantle - hood and globe. Anything pristine really ought to be preserved rather than used, IMHO. To answer one of your other questions, there's not much point in doing anything to the burner much beyond a quick clean in soapy water - it'll only get mucky again when you use the lantern I'm just about to move on three Superbs as parts or spares lanterns - all the hoods are shinier than yours but all have varying degrees of enamel loss simply because they've been used in the past. My best VS has a pretty pristine hood to match the rest but really, it's a shelf-queen, again IMHO. Your, or anyone else's, mileage may vary...
I'll take one of the hoods please, David. PM me and we'll talk turkey! And Paul, what David says about hoods (and other lantern parts that deteriorate) is something everyone who collects lamps and lanterns has to take into consideration. If you are very very lucky, you may come across a pristine lantern which is an excellent feeling, but 99.9% of the time you find used models that display the evidence of being used to a greater or lesser degree.
I have plenty of lamps that bear the scars of their history & I’m very happy with the Superb - its the easiest lamp to light in my collection. The enamel is in pretty good shape apart from the dullness - like glass that been through the dishwasher too many times. If I could sort that out I’d be delighted. I realise high temp paints seldom if ever work at the promised temperatures so am looking for a way to get a little shine back. If that’s not possible I’ll just keep my eyes open for a good top.
Hi @Paraffinhead I’m another Veritas owner, current 4 in my stable, and I’m with you, they light up very easily and run reliably well. The enamel on the hoods, as @David Shouksmith said, will deteriorate with use, that’s how it goes. The dulling of the enamel finish can be caused by using automobile polishes and once marred can be extremely difficult to remedy, in fact there has been a lot of discussions about this very thing on the Coleman Collectors forum site over the past years. The conclusion reached is that never, never, never, polish your enameled hoods with any cutting compound, auto waxing type polishes or similar. So I would suggest, as others have said, to keep this hood for when you’re using the lantern, and scout about for a better hood for display. I have empirically found and use an enamel hood cleaning method and I point out it’s what I use and that there are other methods just as good. My method is as follow: First, wash and clean the hood first with warm soapy water then when dry, a final clean with Brasso and polish with a clean dry soft cloth. The Brasso will clean off stubborn marks without dulling the enamel. Cheers Pete
I have a confession. I used a caustic cleaner on an enamel hood hoping it would do the trick... the only thing it did was etch the surface down to a dull matt! Thankfully it was already quite pitted and rusty so I didn't loose much... annoying though
