Omg, what a difference a mantle can make!. My petromax cp500 clone needed a new mantle and a quick service, so when I went to find one, a mantle fell out of its opened paper packet, this was an old mantle I inherited with one of my old lamps. A Bullfinch no 1617. I made sure I fitted it out of the house and very carefully due to the asbestos string. Anyway, I soaked it in ethanol, squirted carefully using a syringe from the top, gently wetting it and watching the fabric get wet all around then lit it up, once it had burnt I filled the preheater cup twice and allowed it to burn almost fully down then gently gave it a small bit of paraffin enough to burn a bit more and it shrank into a nice globe shape, then over the next 5 minutes brought the burn up to full and let it burn in for the next half hour. It was already noticeably bright and this was midday. Anyway, eventually dusk fell and it was time to do a comparison. It is bright, very bright, the phone camera does not show how bright but my g*d its bright. So pleased, like a kid in a sweet shop On the left is an led lantern a BLF-LT1, then a coleman dual fuel twin mantle running on naphtha, next is a coleman northstar dual fuel running on Heptane, then the most right is my Petromax clone with new mantle running on paraffin, and it doesn't show in the picture but it is retina uncomfortable to look at. Need to find a supply of old mantles I think.
So technically the mantle I fitted is for a 300/400 cp lamp whereas the Petromax is supposed to be 400/500 cp. What issue may I get by running it like this, there is no over burn visible (flames outside the mantle) and the pulsing I used to get has gone (but this could be I ever so slightly opened the u tube to jet gap). It is working very well and this mantle looks a lot more robust than the last mantle (helox) and is brighter.
So long as the mantle is large enough and bulbous enough to keep the vapouriser heated properly then there should not be any problems.
It is hard to beat a Petromax or its clone in terms of light output if it is working properly and using the appropriate mantle. We should of course, compare on a 'pound-for-pound' or rather 'cp-for-cp' basis. I would guess the Bulfinch mantle would likely be the radioactive(thorium) type.
It's the first old stock mantle I've used as I only got into this a few years ago so only been using modern mantles. Think I may try to find some NOS mantles and put them to one side, but trying to get these in the UK?. Where's a good source, I see them available on the bay of evil but always from the USA but have never ordered NOS items this way, vaccum tubes or mantles, has anyone had any recent experience buying from the US to the UK, do you get stung with a big import charge or do thoriated items just get banned period. Thanks.
I'm sure members living in the UK should have some ideas for that. NOS mantles are limited items. Many no longer in production. There are only so many of them still out there. I'd prefer currently-manufactured mantles for users due to that.
