Kerosene lantern find

A bit ago I posted about getting a Coleman dual mantle lantern working. Though me and the dog were happy with my success the wife unit was not too pleased due to the amount of light it puts out potentially blinding the neighbors in the near dark unlit campground. Seeking a more subdued mood lighting solution I came across a Dietz Junior kerosene lantern, though never used it was not stored well and took a bit of cleaning up and was soon operational. The softer glow received approval from the lighting selection committee and put me on the hunt for at least one more when I came across these. They are a Dietz #2, a red lensed Monarch, a Hope from Korea and a BAT no175 Super Baby picked up for the cost of less than a half a tank of fuel in my RAM truck.

The Monarch and the Hope should clean up well, the BAT has a bad paint job and I may strip and refinish it, I see hints of original red paint here and there. Oddly it appears to never have been used. The #2 is my real issue, obviously a good coating of surface rust, but no real damage. It’s obviously been well used. Not too sure if I want to try and brush it or chemically clean it or just treat it to arrest the rust as is.

Lastly other than amzone is there a good source for replacement wicks?

Attachment 282026

https://lanternnet.com/

Tons of good info here. History. Parts. New lanterns both imported and US made. Also antique lanterns.

http://www.milesstair.com/

This is where I've found some hard to find wicks, have also found some on Amazon.

Old hardware stores are where I have always purchased wicks for my kerosene lamps.

Robert

Miles Stair's Wick Shop. Should have what you need. Google will take you to his site.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by webfoot10

Miles Stair's Wick Shop. Should have what you need. Google will take you to his site.

---

That's the site I posted (#3)

Kerosene lanterns will meet the "mood" lighting requirement nicely but I would have given anything to have had a Coleman Twin Mantle Lantern a few months ago .

Ice storms knocked out power and heat ... those Twin Mantle Lanterns put out plenty of both light and heat and we needed both .

Usually our power is out in Summer , Hurricane season , Usually It's sooooo Hot in the house that I bought two Coleman Lanterns with flourescent tubes powered by batteries , no heat and a little light but Winter Ice storm we were freezing inside the house it was 38 degrees .

Hang onto the Coleman Lanterns , get new mantles and fresh fuel ... one ice storm and you will fall in love with them . I got new mantles and fresh fuel for ours .

I'm better at Hurricanes than Ice storms for sure !
Gary

Cool.
Deitz used to say in their advertising they still use the same stamping molds now that they did back in the Gold rush days
when they were first made.

Wicks & globes are available at the bigger hardware stores since they haven't changed.
If I'm outside during bug season, I run mine with that citronella oil to run 'em off.

What I've done for the super bright Colemans, is fold up a piece of foil and put it part way around inside the glass lens.

Another deal is to make a tent out of foil to go over the top cover and direct the light down.

I really like kerosene lanterns and colemans too. Wal mart has 1/2" wicks but Lehmans.com has better quality stuff as well as new lamps and lanterns. I got a Dietz 80 blizzard; takes a 3/4" wick and holds like a gallon of kero! I also picked up a coleman 288 which is a dimmable two mantel gas.

Little bit of thread drift, but funny stuff. When in my 20's, I was hunting with a friend in his 60s, a full blooded Cherokee. I was trying
to get a Coleman lantern to light. I never realized it was a Kerosene one. I'm putting regular Coleman fuel ,and trying to get it going. Big flames, won't work. Claude has an axe back by his bunk, ready to chop a hole in the in the back to escape. Stupid me, all I can say.

Www.lehmans.com for all kinds of cool stuff!

Our local, ''Do It Best'' hardware stocks all sizes of wicks.

I've always wanted one of those.
Old made in the USA one.

I have several around here, There are still a couple of hooks left where I would hang them in different rooms. Years age the power would go out if it snowed. I cooked on gas at the time and heated with wood so a couple lanterns and a 55 gallon barrel of water made a lot of difference. Doesn't take a lot to help you get through.

I have my dads Coleman twin mantle lantern. I LOVE that thing. There is something about the light and sound that they make when they are running.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gwpercle

Kerosene lanterns will meet the "mood" lighting requirement nicely but I would have given anything to have had a Coleman Twin Mantle Lantern a few months ago .

Ice storms knocked out power and heat ... those Twin Mantle Lanterns put out plenty of both light and heat and we needed both .

Usually our power is out in Summer , Hurricane season , Usually It's sooooo Hot in the house that I bought two Coleman Lanterns with flourescent tubes powered by batteries , no heat and a little light but Winter Ice storm we were freezing inside the house it was 38 degrees .

Hang onto the Coleman Lanterns , get new mantles and fresh fuel ... one ice storm and you will fall in love with them . I got new mantles and fresh fuel for ours .

I'm better at Hurricanes than Ice storms for sure !
Gary

---

I just sold 3 vintage coleman gasoline lanterns on FB marketplace. I must have not asked enough for them, they sold in 13 minutes and two fellows came from 45 miles away to pick them up...they were very happy.

JonB ,
I would have kept one ... Winter Ice Storm is where they ... shine !
Sorry about bad pun ,
Gary

I found an Aladdin lamp at the flea market a couple years back. Got it working. Nice to use in the winter. Lots of light and warmth.

During my missionary days in Ecuador I had a pair of Petromax lanterns. These were pressurized fuel with ash mantels much like the Coleman. These were made in Singapore and marked Rolex. They ran on Kerosene rather than the white gas/Coleman fuel. They were a bit more cranky that the Coleman, but less likely to turn into a ball of fire, because of the fuel.

I had some British friends who were camping on an Ecuadorian beach when their Coleman stove exploded catching the woman's clothes on fire. She ran into the surf to extinguish the flames, but the water was very polluted and she died of the infection caused by the bacteria in the water. Since that happened, I won't get within ten yards of any Coleman product that runs on white gas/Coleman fuel.

We have three Aladdin mantle lamps, two Coleman's, and a Dietz.

The Dietz is very handy and fuel efficient. When power goes out we light it first then go about lighting the others.

Our Coleman is a two mantle lamp and while it gives a lot of light, it also uses a lot of fuel, even when turned down. My FIL had a very old Coleman single mantle that we borrowed for camping a few times. It lasted 10+ hours on a full tank and provided plenty of light without being obnoxious. Unfortunately he sold it without asking us. I finally found a single mantle Coleman lamp at a flea market last year and am in the process of restoring it.

The Aladdins are great to have around the house and get used occasionally to make sure they are still working.

I did not know they made Coleman style pressurized stoves and lamps that use kerosene, something new to research!
Makes more sense than something that uses fuel sold by the manufacturer.

I also have an old Rayo type circular wick lamp branded Magnetic. The Rayo puts out a lot more light than a flat wick but is very thirsty. An interesting story is Standard Oil developed it and gave one away with the purchase of 5 gallons of kerosene. The lamps were so thirsty, it guaranteed more kerosene sales!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Michael J. Spangler

https://lanternnet.com/

Tons of good info here. History. Parts. New lanterns both imported and US made. Also antique lanterns.

---

Wow thanks for the link, cold blast/hot blast.... I completely had no idea how these lanterns really worked.

Makes me feel even better about my decision to buy.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by metricmonkeywrench

Wow thanks for the link, cold blast/hot blast.... I completely had no idea how these lanterns really worked.

Makes me feel even better about my decision to buy.

---

Tons of cool info huh ? The are actually the owners of the Deitz brand which is made on their old machines in China where the WT Kirkman is certain Deitz models made on their equipment in the US.
They’re so cheap to buy brand new that it’s worth having a couple around. Also the spare parts are dirt cheap.

I love my lanterns!

Ive had a cheap pressed tin hurricane lamp since I was a kid.....I keep it filled with diesel ,it doesnt evaporate like kerosine,and the lamp can always be lit ,no matter how long its been neglected......downside is a bit of extra soot on the glass,and a bit of a smell......I used to have a kerosine fridge i ran on diesel too.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gwpercle

JonB ,
I would have kept one ... Winter Ice Storm is where they ... shine !
Sorry about bad pun ,
Gary

---

I don't camp anymore, and last time I used one while camping, I nearly set the Big Horns on FIRE [smilie=b:
Ice storm? I have a Wood stove and LED flashlights.

I've been trying to sell these at my garage sales for years...I had them marked $10 each.
when I listed them on FB, I seen people listing them for prices as crazy are Primers on GB. I bumped the price a little bit when I listed them. They must be the latest thing that the masses are collecting, for them to sell so quick.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gwpercle

Kerosene lanterns will meet the "mood" lighting requirement nicely but I would have given anything to have had a Coleman Twin Mantle Lantern a few months ago .

Ice storms knocked out power and heat ... those Twin Mantle Lanterns put out plenty of both light and heat and we needed both .

Usually our power is out in Summer , Hurricane season , Usually It's sooooo Hot in the house that I bought two Coleman Lanterns with flourescent tubes powered by batteries , no heat and a little light but Winter Ice storm we were freezing inside the house it was 38 degrees .

Hang onto the Coleman Lanterns , get new mantles and fresh fuel ... one ice storm and you will fall in love with them . I got new mantles and fresh fuel for ours .

I'm better at Hurricanes than Ice storms for sure !
Gary

---

Camped out one summer cruising timber at 7,000ft in Utah. Only light and heat in my small dome tent was a Coleman Single. Boy, was that a great summer. I cored one Blue Spruce on the edge of a park and dated it to 1492. Counted it several times to make sure

We have a couple of Dietz kerosene lanterns as backups along with the Aladin tall chimneys. Nothing like that soft light glow sitting at camp with the snow flying and woodstove going

A small 2-burner Coleman gas stove is the best deal I ever got at a pawn shop. It looked little used but was on the $10 table, I suppose because people were going propane at the time. I put my thumb over the pump and as expected it wouldn't pressurize. I offered $5 for the "broke" stove and got it for that. A few drops of oil on the leather and it's good as new. Coleman gas appliances used to be dirt cheap at yard and estate sales because so many people had them for hunting, camping, fishing, many "broke" because they wouldn't pressurize. I suppose they're "vintage" now and more expensive.

I even caught one fishing on the bottom once. The globe was gone, tank rusted through and full of mud. The only salvageable parts were the brass nut that held the top on and a couple of other brass parts.

Op
A couple of suggestions and comments ...
The lantern on the left will be your best lantern with the longest burn time, best light and least odor because it reburns the the exhaust of the flame which further burns suspended particulates (unburned fuel) ..Also if you are using these in doors and in particular small spaces do two things please ..crack an opening to outside air source and buy a gallon of pure paraffin oil which will burn brighter and is a ZERO odor combustable
The Blue lantern I would relegate to outside use as it of the 4 will be the lantern that will most contribute to fouling your air ..I know others who use diesel, kerosene and fuel oil but if you get into a major mother nature deal and face many days or weeks of having to use these types of light source you will be very thankful to have odorless fuel available ..
The little lantern you will soon find is going to be very limited to giving off much light ..
The red one which will be foreign made is probably ok but I would fill it and watch it for a tank full to establish it's reliability ..in fact make them all prove themselves before you trust them
(Proving them) means fill the tanks..with a sharp pair of scissors cut the wick square with 3/8" of wick showing above the wind guard ...set them in a big pie plate ..if the lantern was dry let it set a half hour for the wick to soak up fuel to the exposed area of the wick ..turn the wick adjustment knob to insure you can control the wicks movement ..then light.. IN the half hour of wick soak time the biggest thing to be alert for is a leaking fuel tank ...
The rusty looking one is a possible candidate to leak simply because rust can cause pin holes you cannot even see with your naked eye ..on the other hand you may turn it over and the very bottom could look almost shinny new (coating called "Japanned")
Another source for a leaking tank are at the seams like the very bottom edge the lantern sits on is a soldered joint ...
If you do encounter a leaking tank just google "gas tank sealer" ..it is an epoxy based product these car restorers use to fix (from the inside) a gas tank that leaks that no one build a new replacement tank for ..it is an over night repair and works like a charm

Enjoy
Bear

Bear, thanks for the info. Since my last update I toyed a bit with all 4 I haven’t done much with the big one yet. I tried to get the burner out of the blue Monarch, the burner shell popped off but the wick assy stayed stuck to the tank so it got set aside for a later date. We did get the Hope fired up and it works pretty good, but it was not as precise a burn when compared to my Dietz Junior, the downside is that the globe is a bit chipped out around the base which may be a factor. The little Bat was the surprising one, despite its size it burned real well and produced a surprisingly decent amount of light. All of them will be regulated to outdoor use.

So 2 for 2 so far...