An old cliche(that always seems to ring true) happened tonight… “look for something else and you’ll find what you can’t” I’ve misplaced/lost my pocket notebook, somehow when I cleaned the den/living room table for Christmas dinner… No Idea where I put it. So I’m tearing the house apart to find it and stumble upon the lighter laying on a stack of clothes in my changing room… Wrong side of the chair to have fallen out when sitting, 4 feet from where I put my edc that day when I changed clothes… NO idea how it got there, but there it was!
Some interesting info, just did some research on Zippo dating, and on the old one that was my Dads; I had previously refined it down to 1951 or 1952, the info I had found said that from the style, and the lack of a date code… Information that I now find was slightly inaccurate(or incomplete), but ironically turned out to be a right conclusion…
Further research puts the stamp style/script at being used from 33 to 54/mid 55.
So thats the newest it could have been.
Some more reading, and the patent number is from ‘about 36 to ’52.
46 to 52 with the canned bottom instead of flat.
49 onward has the 5 barrel hinge like this one.
So thats down to 49 to 52.
The wear on this lighter, through the chrome is not brass colored, it is silver or steel.
Now, ww2 era lighters and Korean war era models were not brass cased, because of war time brass shortages.
’53 onward to late 54/early 55 were also steel, but the patent number is also different from 53 onward.
49 and 50 were brass cased with chrome plating.
51 was nickel silver cased with chrome plating,
and ’52 was steel with chrome platting.
So thats down to ’51 or ’52.
This sucker(without the insert, the case only) is magnetic! Its steel.
so, definetaly, 1952.
The ONLY year for this material, with this construction, and this patent number!
I cross referenced this between several dating and collector sites, and the official Zippo site, to make sure to avoid errors… all info agrees that the only year for this stamp, number, and build details/materials, is 1952.
Now, you might be wondering why this matters since I lost it last week…
It wouldn’t be important, except that I FOUND IT TONIGHT!!!
Alaskan, Adventurer, Engineer. 