10 Reasons to Carry a Lighter
The versatile full-size Bic lighter
An open flame is one of humankind’s oldest tools, but is it something we still need in modern life? If you aren’t a smoker of some sort, why carry a lighter? We may not be roasting wooly mammoths these days, but a lighter and the flame it provides can be equally handy when camping, around the house, or out-and-about.
Here’s a list of 10 reasons you might consider including a lighter as an everyday carry item.
1. Starting a Campfire
This one may be obvious, but a reliable source of flame is of huge importance when you are camping. Staying warm, drying wet clothes, boiling water, cooking meat, and toasting marshmallows are all likely scenarios. You’ll be glad to have a way to get that campfire going when you need it. Though less likely, being able to easily ignite kindling to start a fire could become a life-and-death matter should you find yourself in a wilderness survival situation.
2. Lighting Candles & Incense
A lighter is the ideal choice to quickly ignite candles for ambiance. If your candle is unscented, you might also make use of a lighter to start a glowing ember on the end of a stick of incense.
Using a lighter to "age" paper crafts
3. Craft Projects
Use the flame to melt wax for crafts or sealing letters. You might also want to try “aging” the paper by carefully heating it over the flame and lightly burning the edges of the paper. Secret messages can be written on paper using lemon juice. The message is revealed by heating the paper over a flame.
4. Lighting Lamps
It may or may not happen frequently in your area, but the power grid does go down from time to time. In emergencies such as this, it can be a good idea to have candles, lamps, and lanterns on hand. You’ll need a safe and trustworthy way to ignite these various sources of non-electric light.
5. Sealing Rope Ends
Many forms of rope are made of synthetic material such as nylon. When you cut the end of the rope, it leaves a mess of fibers that will just get worse over time. You can prevent fraying by melting the ends of synthetic ropes with heat from a lighter. Be sure not to use your bare fingers to shape or extinguish the melted material.
6. Restarting Gas Appliances
A lighter is ideal for lighting candles
If you have a gas hot water heater, stove, or furnace, it’s not unheard of to have the pilot light go out. Depending on your make and model, you may need to use an open flame to restart your appliances.
7. Sterilizing Sewing Needles
Before using a sewing needle to remove a splinter, it’s a good idea to disinfect the needle. In the absence of alcohol, holding the needle in the flame from a lighter can help prevent the wound from getting infected.
8. Shrinking Heat-Shrink Tubing
Best known for its use in electrical work to secure wire connections, heat-shrink tubing is a special type of plastic tubing that can form a tight seal around wires. The tubing is slipped over the exposed wires, then heated with a lighter which causes it to shrink to a fraction of its original diameter. It’s also good for creating small tool handles and to keep the ends of rope from fraying.
A lighter can thaw a frozen lock
9. Lighting Citronella Torches
Smoke has long been used to repel insects. In more recent years, citronella-infused candles and torches have become popular for the same purpose. You’ll need a flame to light the oil torch version or scented candle version.
10. Thawing Frozen Locks
If you live in a cold, wet region, you may wake up and discover that your outdoor padlocks may be frozen and rendered unopenable. You can use a lighter to apply heat to thaw out a padlock so that the mechanism will accept the key and open again.
In Conclusion
Clearly, we are just scratching the surface of what one can do with an open flame. While it’s true that matches could be used for many of these tasks, lighters provide a longer, cleaner flame that makes things a lot easier.
It’s worth mentioning here that the only other tool that is this versatile as a flame is some form of cutting edge, such as a knife. If you want both of these tools in one small unit, the Original LIGHTER·KNIFE loaded with a full-size Bic lighter is the ideal everyday carry solution. My personal choice is the black Slimline model. Because this model does not have a belt clip, it is somewhat smaller and fits more comfortably in my pocket.