Thanks! I probably have over 200 lanterns. You know how it is… anything to do with creating light. lol It looks like you’ve indulged quite heavily as well. :bigsmile: Most of my rare lantern restorations are sold to Japanese collectors who pay top dollar for prime examples.
Ive been a CPF member for several years. After many of my detailed how-to pictorials kept disappearing to make space on Mikes old system (while other ridiculous posts remained - created by a certain dictatorial overzealous admin) I stopped contributing. Its too bad, because many of the most knowledgeable and respected members also left for similar reasons.
Not to fear because everyone seems to have reunited at “Antique & Vintage Coleman Lantern & Stove Collectors” on facebook. Redirecting... I hope you’ll join us.
Im glad you enjoyed it. The cam sensor easily gets pegged from all the lumens and doesnt do a very good job at reproducing the color temp and CRI. I had to under-pressure the lanterns for the vid shot. The mantles are thorium coated and burn at around 5k and probably 98-100 CRI on my home-brew fuel mixtures. If you enjoy large amounts of omnidirectional outdoor lighting, tinkering and a sense of averting an explosion or setting yourself on fire, then buy an old lantern and enjoy. They are a ton of fun!
I have an old (well, maybe 30 years old) Tilley paraffin lantern that I keep meaning to look at. It’s been in it’s original box since I bought it, and hasn’t been used for probably 29 years lol. I seem to remember I always had a problem with the mantles, though they are probably easy to pick up. It was just too cumbersome to carry around when I went camping.
I would love to find an old Tilley to add to my collection, as the Tilley lanterns are the European version of our Coleman Lanterns, and Tilley’s are really hard to find here.
Grab one off ebay. Here’s my Tilley kerosene Model X246 “The Guardsman”, Storm Lantern after resto. I removed the threads from the bottom of a Peerless 111 thorium mantle and rolled it under so that I dont have to use Tilley mantles. Not quite what a 236-237 throws out but still a good 300cp.
The Coleman 236 & 237 burning thorium treated mantles are said to be equivalent to a 350 watt incandescent. The 236 burns Coleman fuel. The 237 burns anything that can be burned in these types of lanterns.
Then there are frankenlanterns. This 237 based mish-mash is capable of roughly 800 watts equivalent.
I can remember the warning labels on the Thorium mantles when they were available. I’m assuming the Thorium mantles are no longer available, how much dimmer are the currently available mantles. Any tricks to make current mantles brighter? When doing the restorations what paint are you guys using. Of the lanterns I have, the finish seems to be the same as on the old enamel pots.
EDIT: Maybe those pots I’m thinking abut were porcelain coated. Finish was very thick, hard, and seemed to be several layers thick. When a piece would flake off it was black underneath.
Thorium being mildly radioactive, was hazardous in the dust form when mantles broke. I never used any of the old mantles in years and cant remember if they were any brighter than the current types. I never used any paint on the lantern in the OP, ( the top vent is a used replacement one in better condition) The vents get very hot when running and most paints will peel and burn off the vents. the fount (tanks) if i have to re-paint them i use a high gloss enamel.
