Blog by Steve Laug

Several years ago on one of my pipe hunts I came across this unused, still in the box Colibri Electro-Quartz lighter. It was in a junk shop and I picked it up for around $20. I figured it was a bit of as steal so I grabbed it and brought it home. Somehow in one of the cleanups the girls in my household did on my study and desk top the lighter was put away and I totally forgot about it. I had not given it a thought or even filled it or tried it out. This week I was looking for a pipe I had put in my desk and though I did not find the pipe I did find the lighter and took it out and had a look at it.It has a brushed steel finish on both sides and the edges are polished stainless. The flame comes out on the side of the lighter and is a soft torch flame. It can easily be adjusted to not damage the bowl of a pipe. There is no wheel that is struck to light the flame, rather the bar shown on the right side of the photo above is slid downward and the flame ignites. The top 2/3 of the slide is grooved so that it is easy to move downward. There is not a flint in the lighter and no spark wheel. Sliding the bar downward ignites the butane.

I filled it with Colibri Butane and pulled the slide down to see if I could get a flame. There was a slight hissing that came from the filling tube on the bottom of the lighter so I used a small tipped screwdriver to adjust that valve. I was able to get a very small flame from the lighter but it did not extend far enough away from the lighter to light a pipe. I had no idea how to adjust the flame as there were not any instructions left in the box with the lighter. I went online and found the Colibri site. There I found a PDF of the instructions for a wide variety of their lighters. Sure enough the instructions included a guide for operating and adjusting the lighter I had found. I have included both the link to the PDF file and the two page document itself below http://us.colibri.com/media/wysiwyg/Warranty/Colibri-Lighter-Instructions.pdf . While none of the drawings are the lighter I have the adjustments are nonetheless present in the photos.

Using the manual I adjusted the flame on the lighter to extend it further from the lighter and enable me to use it in lighting my pipe. I adjust the fill tube so that it did not stick open and allow the butane to escape. The lighter includes a tamper in the bottom that can be extended to tamp down the tobacco. It is a very light weight piece that is thin enough to fit in my pocket or my pipe case with no trouble. The ease with which it can be lit makes it a pleasure to use.

I am looking forward to giving this “new” lighter a try to see how it works and if it is one that I will use or if it is one that will be sold off to finance a new one.