David, brilliant thanks. Sounds like a plan. I will upload some photos later but maybe we should start a new thread for this, as it may attract further replies and/or comments from others. By the way I’ve been naughty and also picked up an original pork pie short handle for the collection....
@Alex74 picking up a short handle porkie is quite a find. Your acquisition just goes to show that “naughty and nice” do go together Cheers Pete
Thanks Pete. The plan is to fettle 3 lamps during the Xmas break, as I am not flying back to Italy this year. Lots of photos will follow.
I have two pork pie Tilleys with short handles. They're both great runners but you can't carry them very far without burning the hell out of your hand! That's probably why Tilley lengthened the handle on the later pork pies.
Hi George, I’m looking forward to feel the pain on the hand then...part of the vintage experience perhaps? ...let the old lamp burn a hole in your hand....
The Eccles protector has been fettled too today... The Flint striking mechanism was caked up and the original flint crumbled away. Now all loose and working. After doing some reading online I found that Coleman fuel is the nearest thing to Colzaline and lights promptly from the striker too. Tonight Im doing a burning duration test on a full tank (around 70 ml). I’m expecting 20 hours + with a small flame... I put the lamp in the wood stove for safety.
@Alex74 Nice looking lamp and congratulations on a fettle well done. I’ve always liked the look of these. It’ll be interesting to see how many miles per gallon she runs for on a full tank of juice. Cheers Pete
Hi Pete. I’ll let you all know tomorrow evening. We’re now one and half hour into the burn and looks steady as a rock. These are the lamps they use to carry the Olympic flame and sacred fire on planes and they have been chosen for a reason. I know I shouldn’t post wick lamps on here, but I thought you guys might be interested to know how standard Coleman fuel (£6/L on Amazon) performs in one of these iconic lamps.
You burn gasoline in it?! I thought they burned something like lighter fluid. I have a Koehler miner's lamp and that's what I use. I think they're neat!
George, Coleman fluid is more similar to kerosene than petrol (gasoline for you). Just a slightly lower flashpoint than kerosene so it ignites from a flint spark. Lighter fluid is more volatile than Coleman fluid and more similar to gasoline, and more expensive!
23 hours on and she’s still alight, just. A small blue cap flame hovering over the wick. I’m about to put it out of its misery... but that’s not bad for 75 ml fuel is it? Pretty impressive.
That’s amazing @Alex74 I wouldn’t have thought that. Thanks for the insight to this lamp. Cheers Pete
