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ABOUT THE RARE LIGHTER
This is an EXTREMELY rare and very beautiful war relic probably from the World War 2 era. According to the donator (who is one of my subscribers on the cannel) it was found near the coastline on the island of Oahu with metal detector equipment, many years ago. The lighter was so damaged that he didn’t do anything to fix it until he found my channel.
The U.S. Military had their present on Oahu since 1898 when the first soldiers arrived from 1st New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment and 3rd Battalion, 2nd U.S. Volunteer Engineer – We all know what happened December 7, 1941, on Oahu. The legendary surprise attack of Pearl Harbor took place that date around 8 am. Somehow in my heart I hope that the lighter is from that specific battle in Pearl Harbor, but it could be from a much earlier or later period also. We just don’t know.
THE RESTORATION PROCESS
I started by cleaning the emblem attached to the lighter. It looked fantastic. I guess it is a U.S. Gold & Sterling Navy badge from World War 1 or 2, but I am not quite sure. The badge felt very solid and turned black when heated, so that’s when I figured out that it probably was a real U.S. Navy silver badge. I heated up the lighter to remove the badge and all the parts which were soldered to the lighter.
I sandblasted the body of the lighter with very fine glass beads and low pressure just to be as “gentle” as possible. After that I grinded it with 500, 1000 and 1500 grit sandpaper. I polished it to mirror blank and added all the small parts again.
I had to make a new tube for the wick. So I took an old brass screw and created the tube, inclusive a lit on my lathe.
The awesome looking U.S. Navy silver badge was cleaned in spirit before it was attached to the lighter. What a fantastic and beautiful war relic. I hope that you enjoy this restoration video. I really enjoyed doing this and yesterday I worked 21 hours in a row just to get this video ready.
