My Dunhill Service WWII Trench Lighter

[durham270]

I've had this Dunhill for a few years now. I've never done any work on it as for as cleaning and all. I'm sure it could get back into working condition with some effort!

 

[cynyr]

That's a real piece of history. The world will never see entire nations contributing to a war effort again... thankfully!

 

[teufelhund]

Very cool... Definitely a piece of history.

 

[seanlamb63]

That's a nice one, looks like it's in decent condition. From a historians point of view, watch restoring it. If all the mechanisms work, I would pop in a flint and use it as is. In a lot of cases, restoring something could indeed devalue the item. Nice find though, they are getting hard and harder to come by.

 

[uberam3rica]

Thats pretty sweet!

 

[fnord]

I asked about them several months ago and a couple of smart guys clued me in. They're really not that rare, Sean. Dunhill made them by the hundreds of thousands and, used, they usually sell in the 20 buck range.
Here's an especially crisp one the Bay right now:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dunhill-Service-Military-Cigarette-Lighter-Unused-/300870262730?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item460d43dfc
I was also informed they don't work that well for pipes. But you certainly can't argue about their cool factor.
Fnord

 

[pipelighters]

Very nice, thanks for sharing it!

Dan

 

[zonomo]

So I assume they were issued to the British forces? I just did a search and its not clear to me if the US Military has ever issued lighters such as Zippo's. Anyone know?

 

[lordofthepiperings]

Cool lighter. I saw one of those on the Pawn Stars show once. Rick told the guy pretty much the same thing fnord said, that they were made by the thousands for the soldiers and weren't too terribly rare and therefore not worth a lot on the market today. Still, a cool keepsake, even more so if it works.

 

[dukdalf]

Exactly which troops were lucky enough to receive such a lighter, I don't know. But I have one in the original box which like the lighter itself says "Made in U.S.A.". The U.S. military being, generally speaking, more generous in its outfitting than the British I suspect they were made for and distributed amongst American soldiers.

 

[lucky695]

very cool

 

[tjameson]

I wouldn't clean it up I would just get it functional again. That's beautiful patina there that tool years to form and couldn't be replicated. I'm a patina lover though just my two cents

 

[cavendish]

Nice... I have a few little personal items and a CDA bayonet from the Korean War. However someone took a file to it and went a tad crazy taking off about 1/4"+/- of the blade trying to sharpen it..

Your piece is pretty cool!
It's nice to have little pieces of history around. Kids don't learn about that stuff any longer as far as my kid tells me.