** The Big Oil Lantern Thread ! **

lets also get Roostre to fire up one of his Aladins. Those monsters are really bright in comparison to the single wick oil lamps. :smiley:

Yes I am a fan of the Aladdin lamps so to give a comparison, here is a short video (made by Aladdin of course.)

The supply of mantles I purchased in case there was a Y2K disaster ran out several years ago and I had not even thought much about the Aladdins (which have become decorations) until “The Big Oil Lantern Thread !” was revived.

Like the mantles for the Coleman White Gas Lanterns, the Aladdin Mantles are very fragile after their first use and eventually get holes in them and need to be replaced, but the Aladdin Mantles are hard to find and very expensive compared to the Coleman Mantels.

shedding some light on the aladdin mantle lamps

Are those Thorium mantles?

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There is thorium in the mantles yes. Enough to easily pick up with a Geiger counter (I do the demonstration in the school where I work as a teaching assistent).

New to oil lamps here, just recently I’ve reading about non-led lighting lanterns (gas, gasoline, oil) and found them very interesting. Technologies that were already perfected for decades but discontinued in the modern times.

I’m looking for a compact oil lantern and trying to decide between the Feuerhand baby 276 and the Dietz 76.

I might not give it much hard use but do want something well built and durable that I can take to camping and work reliably. I read that dietz lanterns are now made overseas and are sold for mainly decorative purposes rather than functionality, meanwhile the feuerhand are still made in Germany.

Also, they don’t sell clear paraffin oil around here and only yellow tinted kerosene, would that work just as good for fuel?

oil lamps are not very fussy about the fuel, the tinted kerosine should be fine. Just do not use cooking oils because they turn rancid over time and the hard fats will clog everything.

I’d go with the Feuerhand too, they are sturdy and they use (Schott Duran) harded glass shades.

I’ve got a Feuerhand 276 on my wishlist right now…I’m hoping for a father’s day gift.

But to be honest, after more time spent researching than was probably prudent, I didn’t find any clearly better criteria for the choice than “Made in Germany” versus “Made in China.”

Overall, this site was the most helpful source of information for me. He sells both brands, as well as some of his own designs - both customs used by decorators and set designers, and apparently some sort of adaptation of Dietz designs. He claims, and seems to have the background to know, that although Dietz lanterns are now made in China, it is still to the same pattern and even on the same tooling as they used for decades.

https://lanternnet.com/product-category/oil-lanterns/

V&0 is a budget brand probably best reserved for decorative use, although I’ve read they’re still a step up from the poorly made no-name lanterns you may see sold as novelty items at various retailers.

My 2c worth …
I have both a Feuerhand 276 and a Dietz 76. My Dietz was made in Hong Kong.
The Feuerhand 276 is a heavier lantern & seems a lot more solid. It seems like the Dietz uses a thinner sheet metal.
I’d go with the Feuerhand.

I have a number of hurrican lanterns & some of them live outside. Under shelter on the porch but still exposed to the elements.
They are showing signs of ‘old age’ & a few of rust spots.
Any suggestions on how I can protect them ?
I thought of using car polish or a waxy/oil furniture polish. Preferable someting I can spray on to the lantern to make it easy to treat.
I periodicly treat the rust with a phosphoric based rust remover but maybe can use something else to protect from rust.

Turtle Wax seal N shine.
I got mine on Amazon!!

Thanks, will try it. May be a bit expensive for my 4 outside lanterns.

from the MSDS:

P210 Keep away from all sources of ignition - No smoking

I appreciate the impressions based on a direct comparison. Thank you.

I was just looking at WT Kirkman’s website again and noticed he mentioned a “Suprax” globe on the Feuerhand 276. I looked that up, and found out it’s borosilicate glass, so it should be at lower risk of breaking.

Unfortunately, the price of the Feuerhand’s recently went up by almost $20 on Amazon US. But, that’s all the more reason to buy from Kirkman,

I’m actually now thinking I might want a slightly larger lantern, both for the slight increase in brightness, and more classical aesthetic. Since Feuerhand only makes the one size, the Dietz #20 Junior seems about right to me, since I don’t need a large fount. I’m not sure if I like the “modern” (as in 1950’s) red color more or the novelty bronze. I would probably actually go for the more classic look of the galvanized if it was offered.

A little goes a long way; I’ve done my small car( Fiat 500) and my lantern with it twice and still have about a 1/4 of a bottle.

I came accross this on Amazon.
Lamplight 52664 Farmer’s Lantern. It seems about 30 cm high.
I dont know anything about it but I have heard of the manufacturer. They make a couple of other glass lamps as well.

The cynical part of me doesn’t expect much for that specific lantern, although obviously it does the key function of holding a wick and and oil. The Amazon listing I see in the US has a surprisingly low price and reports the weight as a mere 6.2 ounces (about 175 grams). I don’t think that is just a mistake due to Amazon mixing up the weight with the oil capacity like they do on some of the Dietz lanterns, because the listed fuel capacity is 5 ounces. The Dietz lanterns are all over 1 pound (450 grams) as far as I have been able to find.

I see WT Kirkman has some of their glass lamps for sale, so I suspect those are at least decent, since he seems fairly passionate about what he sells.

Apparently Lamplight has been around for a relatively long time. They are now a subsidiary of the same company that owns the Tiki torch brand, but I don’t see the lantern you mention listed on any affiliated website, so that makes me suspect just the name was licensed by some other manufacturer.

https://www.wcbradley.com/divisions/lamplight

The best information I found about the company in general was this 40+ year old article about them when they were still a relatively young company. This is actually a fairly interesting read:

Thanks, very interesting.

Ref to this on eBay.com.au, weight is 1.39 lbs !
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/224590601698?chn=ps&\_ul=AU&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=705-139619-5960-0&mkcid=2&itemid=224590601698&targetid=&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9071360&poi=&campaignid=15791083372&mkgroupid=&rlsatarget=&abcId=9300816&merchantid=494515004&gclid=CjwKCAjw5NqVBhAjEiwAeCa97cSHKHLcT0WjZA4Y15237S4OJPll8aZLmZHUghhV5HEBEAU5Aa3e3hoCYikQAvD_BwE

at USD19 from amazom.com it may be worth a try.
it would cost me AUD30 from amazom.com.au (inc delivery) sold by Amazom US. so returning if faulty would be a problem for me.
Probably made in China where the quality of these sort of lanterns varies a lot. The most common complaint is that they leak.
Maybe ‘lamplight’ has a better quality control etc. although it got lots of bad ( one star ) reviews on amazon.com - maybe not worth buying.

I have just purchased this large table flat wick oil lamp. It cost $21. I inspected it when I bought it and found it to be in good shape despite slight superficial rust . I was having a hard time getting the lamp to light up well with paraffin oil. I got some kerosene but with things I’ve read about low flash point (below 124F) I did not trust the kerosene but then I figured out I could mix the paraffin oil with the 1-k Crown brand kerosene and it would ensure the flashpoint is high enough to be safe and prevent runaway lamp.

Apparently the name “Kerosene” can be slapped on a variety of petroleum products, some of which are unsafe for lamp use even if marketed as such. That annoyed me and worried me but I was only slightly concerned about the Crown brand 1-k kerosene sold at wal mart as the only source I could find online stated that this brand of kerosene has a flash point bracket between 116F and 159F, which is quite a large gap , and some others had given it good reviews so mixing it with closely related paraffin oil was my insurance against having a risk of fuel with too low of a flash point.

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Long story short, I recently developed a minor interest in kerosene lanterns.

The dye that is sometimes in commercial pump kerosene is purported to clog & contaminate cotton wicks used in lamps. The dye is said to not be an issue with kerosene heater wicks, as the business end of those is fiberglass, with the end that is immersed in the tank being cotton. Contamination at the flame (fiberglass) end can be dealt with by dry-burning, then brushing off the remaining ash.

There’s a product by Klean Strip called Klean-Heat, a no-odor kerosene substitute sold at Home Depot among others. Highly recommended for kerosene lighting. Flash point 152 Deg. F. SDS here:
file:///C:/Users/JT/Downloads/510f5764-7af9-4372-a53f-e006deabccb7-1.pdf

Noite that Klean-Heat is often mis-stocked in paint supplies and/or outdoor gardening stuff, on the front wall, etc. Employees might run you all over the store looking for it even when inventory shows 25 or more gallons in stock.

Klean-Strip K1 Kerosene is NOT the same stuff as Klean-Heat; it’s higher odor than Klean-Heat.

I stumbled across this kerosene lantern blog while searching for info on my old Dietz Traffic Gard lantern. Interesting site, with other items of interest to our BLF community:

slmjim

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