Another shortage- lantern mantles

[10-x]

Ron, Thanks, heard you could use alcohol never got around to using it.

[webfoot10]

If anyone is looking for wicks for the old kerosene burning lanterns, Look under
Miles Stairs WICK SHOPPE as he has a long list of wicks that he has made for
older lanterns and lamps. I didn't see any mantles listed though.

[bakerjw]

When I was a kid we went up to Chetek Wisconsin with my sister, her husband and the kids. My brother in law was working on my dad's Coleman lantern and warned me not to touch the mantles. I didn't know that the white things were mantles and I touched one and broke it. He asked why I touched it when he told me not to. I replied "I didn't know that was the mantle" and stayed out of trouble. If he'd have said, don't touch those things, all would have been fine.

I have that lantern and love the noise and glow from them. Good old equipment always stays in fashion.

[kfd518]

Might also look into peerless mantles in replacement of the Coleman mantles

[bakerjw]

My son and I are going to Sneads Ferry here in a couple of weeks to fish the New River and the ocean. the place where we are staying doesn't have a kitchen but they will allow us to use a camp stove, so the ole coleman camp stove is making the trek with us.

[Bwana John]

While I used mantled gas lanterns for most of my life I find solar LED light cubes to be less expensive, more reliable, lighter, cleaner, and safer.

[Winger Ed.]

The world is going to electric everything.

I needed some Coleman fuel lantern parts a year or two ago, and those parts that used to hang on a rack at the hardware store are gone.
Even digging around on line to find old stock, its getting harder and harder to find the generators & such.

Get whatever spare parts you think you'll ever need as soon as ya can before they're gone too.

[gbrown]

The world is going to electric everything.

I needed some Coleman fuel lantern parts a year or two ago, and those parts that used to hang on a rack at the hardware store are gone.
Even digging around on line to find old stock, its getting harder and harder to find the generators & such.

Get whatever spare parts you think you'll ever need as soon as ya can before they're gone too.

Call the Coleman store in Witchita, Ks. That's where Coleman started out. They used to have a museum up there, which I visited. Neat place. I believe it was closed a couple of years ago.

https://www.macraesbluebook.com/sear...company=754941

[Minerat]

To be honest, I don't even know what can help you. I can only share my experience. Whenever I come across something sticky, I always try to wipe it down with alcohol. It usually helps.

I'd be interested in seeing pictures of the end result of wiping a lit lantern mantel with alcohol! Bet the result would be impressive.

[lksmith]

Word of caution: when installing the older style mantles you have to light them to finish the installation. Light them outside and Do NOT breathe in the puff of smoke when you light them. The older ones contain Thorium...the smoke is thorium oxide and is a radioactive alpha emitter...really bad stuff to get into your body.

The newer version has a different thermolumenescent material that is safer, but is brittle and easily shattered.

thorium mantles are more durable and put off brighter light, but yeah, not something you want to breathe in.
You can get them on ebay as Geiger counter test sources. Also might be overlooked by the masses that don't know

[lksmith]

Ron, Thanks, heard you could use alcohol never got around to using it.

for the coleman lanterns you CAN use alcohol, but you'll need a different generator. At a minimum you'll have to change the orifice. If memory serves correctly alcohol needs a larger orifice than gas or camp fuel

[Mr_Sheesh]

Alcohol has less energy per unit volume so a larger orifice makes sense. I hadn't heard you could do that though. Interesting!

[lksmith]

Alcohol has less energy per unit volume so a larger orifice makes sense. I hadn't heard you could do that though. Interesting!

not sure if it's published, but I have done it when I was working at a place that I could get all the 99% Isopropyl I wanted for free. More of a "can I do it" type thing. Also note the little cleaner wire won't work with a newer orifice. Wasn't quite as bright, but worked

[bakerjw]

What a day for Coleman products.

Many years ago in the late 90s we would make a trek to Bushnell Illinois for the Cornerstone Music festival. It was a Christian music festival put on by Jesus People USA. After a couple of years of going and suffering through cold food, we picked up a Coleman gas stove, a George Foreman grill and took my dad's old Coleman lantern. The last time that these were used was 2001 or 2002.

Once again, thanks to the people here at CB, I decided to dig out some old stuff.

The Coleman stove. Fuel from perhaps 2002. Fired right up. Beautiful blue and hot glow.

The Coleman lantern... Stuttered and fussed a bit but eventually hit a happy balance and hot bright warm light was aplenty.

A wonderful day of reliving good memories. Thanks CB!

[jaysouth]

In preparation of an upcoming trip with our 5th wheel I decided to pull my old Coleman lantern off the shelf, clean it up and get it back into working order (a model dual mantle 288 for those who need the details) The cleanup went well, the 10+ year old fuel poured out, but now it was time for the consumables. The local Wally World had a couple of cans of fuel on hand but no mantles. The nice worker who happened to be in the isle knew exactly what I was looking for said she hadn’t seen any on the shelf in months. In general except for a propane lantern or two most of that isle was cleaned out. As we talked further she said most of the stoves and lanterns have been flying off the shelf since the “pandemic” started.

The closest sporting goods store, Dicks, won’t get my money and the usual others are too far away. So I wandered over to the local “A” named hardware store which usually is my source for the obscure and odd items and sure enough they had 2 two packs left on the shelf. I grabbed both and merely went on my way. I guess I’ll have to start grabbing them when I see them to build up a stash.

Some of my better memory’s are of camping and hunting trips and the distinctive hiss of a Coleman lantern lighting up the area.

I have memories of working midnights in a Battalion tactical operations bunker in VN. Our lighting was lanterns. I remember the hiss and heat they gave off.

[lksmith]

What a day for Coleman products.

Many years ago in the late 90s we would make a trek to Bushnell Illinois for the Cornerstone Music festival. It was a Christian music festival put on by Jesus People USA. After a couple of years of going and suffering through cold food, we picked up a Coleman gas stove, a George Foreman grill and took my dad's old Coleman lantern. The last time that these were used was 2001 or 2002.

Once again, thanks to the people here at CB, I decided to dig out some old stuff.

The Coleman stove. Fuel from perhaps 2002. Fired right up. Beautiful blue and hot glow.

The Coleman lantern... Stuttered and fussed a bit but eventually hit a happy balance and hot bright warm light was aplenty.

A wonderful day of reliving good memories. Thanks CB!

As much heat as the lanterns put off you don't need a stove!