The Cigarette Lighter For Survival

I just read an article about the best survival lighter to have. Here's the link if you want to read it, although in my opinion it falls more into the category of "thought provoking" than "good article". That doesn't necessarily mean it's not a good article, just that their definition and criteria of what makes a good survival fire starter is different from mine. But the article does make some good points, hence this post.

First of all, I agree with their assessment of disposables, specifically that there are two types: Bics and cheap pieces of junk that are not worth fooling with. OK, there may be some wonderful quality non-Bic disposables out there, but if so, I have never run across them. I don't smoke anymore, but I did for decades, and I found Bics to always work. Most of the time I used them as my front-line lighter, but even when I was carrying a non-disposable lighter, I learned that it was a good idea to also carry some kind of backup in case the non-disposable lighter ran out of fuel or otherwise didn't function when called upon. Sometimes the backup was matches, other times, a Bic. The point is, I have always found Bics to be reliable and completely acceptable. In fact, I still carry a Bic in my pocket every day, even though I have been a non-smoker for about ten years.
Don't misconstrue that statement, by the way; I have used Cricket and other disposable lighters on occasion, and mostly without problems. But I consider Bics to be the most generally favorable of the disposables, so that is what I buy, and always in bulk packs.

The second lighter the article covered is the Zippo. I agree with their comments, except I would add other liquid-fuel lighters of the same basic design, because although I have several Zippos, I have seen and used other brands of the same design that were equally acceptable, including a no-name brand that was an exact copy (although who knows, it may have been actually made by Zippo) and an old Zenith I have that is higher quality than my Zippos.
The problem with liquid-fuel lighters in general is that they tend to run out of fuel without warning, and the vapor they emit makes my clothes smell and irritates my skin, if carried in a pants pocket.

The last lighter the article covered, and the one they chose as most desirable, was a "storm-proof" refillable butane lighter. I disagree, and I lump all refillable butane lighters into the category of lighters I don't consider to be worthy of consideration as a survival fire starter, unless of course one is already in the situation and the refillable butane lighter is what you have.
I have a few refillable butane lighters, and have found them to be fine for the purpose of lighting smoking materials. The peizo ignition some of them have, including my favorite of the lighters of this type that I own, is very nice to have, and reliable. But...

Here, I am going to get away from the referenced article and discuss my personal take on the subject matter. The linked article was written from a standpoint of wilderness emergency survival, and while the conclusions drawn therein are reasonable for that purpose, I am more interested in having a reliable firestarter I can use on a day-to-day basis, both now and in the event of wilderness emergency, societal breakdown, or whatever.
To me, a peizo-ignited, refillable butane lighter is comparable to a Glock for self-defense. The Glock works great for daily carry for anti-personnel defensive use, should one be attacked. But it works best when used with factory-produced, modern hollowpoint ammunition. I have heard a recurring theme of Glocks blowing up when used with reloads (especially in .40 S&W chambering) because of the factory feed ramp which leaves a semi-large portion of the case unsupported, and since the brass cases become weaker with successive reloadings, the case sometimes blows out at that point.
On the other hand, consider the single action revolver in .45 Long Colt. Slow to reload, sure; but it is extremely reliable to the point of being able to function even with most of its parts missing. Basically, if it has a frame, cylinder, basepin, hammer and hammer spring, it can be fired. And even if things get to the point that you have to recover your bullets and cast or even forge them back into useability, loading them over gunpowder of your own composition and even homebrew primers, it will still work. After all, the design was originally intended for use with black powder, plain lead bullets, and the first generation of primers.

Think about the Zippo and other liquid-fueled lighters. Flint and steel, with a built-in "tinderbox" which is made easier to use by the addition of a volatile liquid fuel. The store-bought versions of that fuel are simply naphtha, but I have found that plain old automotive gasoline works fine, and camp stove fuel (aka Coleman fuel) works so well that I gave up on buying "lighter fuel" and started using camp stove fuel almost exclusively. It also works with alcohol, which I know for a fact because I just tried it moments ago (and you never even noticed I was gone, kinda' like time travel!) with 91% isopropyl alcohol in my old Zenith, and it worked wonderfully. So in an immediate post apocalyptic world you could keep that old Zippo functioning with automotive gasoline (while using your stash of Red Dot in your .45 single action), and long after TEOTWAWKI you could still be using the Zippo with homebrew alcohol (and the single action revolver with homebrew black powder).

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