WWI Trench War Art - 100 Year Old Brass Bullet Lighter Restoration 

It’s nice to see these old treasures restored and brought back to life. Most trench art was made by soldiers either in prison camps, or while recuperating. A great deal more was made post war when soldiers returned home, were without jobs and sold them as souvenirs, or to give to fellow soldiers. Of course, the disabled soldiers made the most post war trench art. There was negligible support for soldiers post war and it was more of a governmental disgrace then, than it is now. As for trench lighters, most of these were matches, but plenty of soldiers made little tubes from shell brass with a cap that fitted over the top to seal it. The bottom part was filled with wax with a boot lace sunk into it. These produced just enough shaded flame to light a gasper without getting shot through the head, or to light your way in an underground dugout, or read a map. The “flamethrower” you have there was of the type put together post war to sell, but is nonetheless a valuable relic from the day.

After 8 minutes of me yelling "Use Brasso!!!", you finally brought it out! Good job brother, waiting for the next one!

This one definitely enters to my top of the sickest, badass and neatest lighters of all time.

To be honest I like the look of the older version but it’s very cool to see you got it to work

Cool old lighter. Great work restoring it!

The duration of the video was correct. It was very nice to watch. Including historical information about the object was excellent and rarely done in other restore channels. This particular object has a special character. It is impossible not to imagine what was going through the mind of the soldier who built it inside one of those terrible trenches that were used in the first world war. Congratulations on your work and choosing an object.

Ahhh when you removed the patina i shed a tear... still cool though

That was really enjoying to watch it all put together & working properly. Thanks for sharing 👍🏻

Тоже часть такой зажигалки была, ваша класс!

Next time, do a repair video for you neighbours washing machine

That knife needs much love, man. Great work on the trench art lighter!

Good job!!! Just a few words of advice: 1) that's WAAAAAY too much compound. Much lighter, my friend :) 2) there's this stuff called "Barkeeper's Friend", and it comes in both a powder and a liquid. Get yourself some, it's GREAT for cleaning and polishing metal 3) if you ever want to shine up a piece of military kit in the traditional way, here are the two most common options: 3a) NeverDull... NeverDull and elbow grease, and LOTS of the latter. 3b) "Bug Juice"; this is a premixed drink similar to KoolAid that's very sour, and can be found on the mess decks of pretty much every Navy ship EVER. We STILL use it to clean decks, and it's one of the best things out there for removing corrosion from and polishing brass and bronze... Probably because of all the citric and ascorbic acid in it 🤣

Que hermoso encendedor, me gustó mucho como lo furon restaurando y arreglando poco a poco..!! Me entretuve mucho viendo este muy bueno e interesante documental..!! Excelente video.!! Saludos

Not too long! If you have a patience to do it,I have patience to watch it! Nice work.

You are a true artist ! The only thing to improve is that I think you should change your gloves to a more cheerful color.

The manliest lighter ever!

I really like this lighter... in our country no like this lighter sell or produce or made so this is very good lighter you made...👍

Awesome!! Pretty nice restoration! greetings from Brazil 🇧🇷

The next time you do a project involving tarnished metal, use Bar Keepers Friend in the powdered form...you’ll wonder how you got along all these years without it. Awesome job, btw. Definitely do the knife next.

my friend was going through her grandmothers hope chest yesterday and found this exact bullet lighter. she didnt know what it was until I helped her figure it out. thanks for the video

I do not think it was too long, as it seemed to show all the necessary steps involved. It showed all the process and chemicals used, including failures which we all experience. I say good job!

Ok I died when I saw you grab the huge knife for the tiny Zippo pack. Do the knife! Also, I found the "John!", do I win a prize? The lighter perhaps?

Great video! It would be awesome to have before and after clips at the end. Keep up the good work!

Estou adorando os vídeos. A edição está fantástica. Parabéns Abraço do Brasil 🇧🇷

I have been excited to see this since you showed me the pictures. I had a trench lighter years ago and I loved it. It was a very sad day when it disappeared. An excellent restoration. I can't wait to see the next one.

Great job, and no none of it was too long.

Una restauración muy regularcita..... ///Colombia /14 /septiembre /2020.

I loved the old look of it, it have history and age. I don’t like restoring antique and making them shiny … with respect

awh man thank you for this recently came across one and your video is perfect and soon enough ill be rocking my bad boi thanks to you

After the Brasso, I was thinking: "Use a Blitz-Cloth, something used by jewelers to brighten the metal." We used our Blitz Cloth on brass for our Army uniform in the 1970s.

The rust remover didn’t work because brass doesn’t rust

Another awesome video. Love the huge knife gag too. Hope to see more content soon :)

Like your work and your video

Hi mate to clean brass and copper up like the new use 1/3 white vinegar1/3 salt 1/3 flour and leave raped up in some plastic wrap for 24 hours but if you want some petina left on do not use

One thing you might try for polishing the metal without abrasives would be hot water and aluminum foil in a non metalic container with some baking soda.

I just watched my first video of when you restored the old hammer and subd by the way , but the comment I left was that using a hammer like that is like talking to a WW l or WW ll veteran and this is the 2nd video I chose to watch and its about this ! Man if these old pieces of history could talk , I could only imagine ... Nice work brother :)

Pretty nice restoration!...

Blows up at the end

I like it

We loved this one. Sadie is now asking for a real metal detector for Christmas so we try to find cool stuff near our house. She also said to remind you that you were going to give her a shout out and we didn't see one. lol. She said - it's okay, he can do one in his next video....tomorrow. Haha.

The rust remover probably didn’t work because most of that lighter is brass and brass doesn’t rust technically, it’s copper oxide that’s discoloring the brass which is actually a good thing, once there is an initial patina it keeps it from further oxidation. Rust remover is most likely (although I’m not sure) for iron oxidation, also known as common rust, you can’t remove rust from brass because there isn’t any, hence the reason none of the chemical methods worked....I think, Should have started with the Brasso or bar keepers friend, or if you had added salt and flour to that vinegar, creating a paste, apply to the brass, leave it on for like 15 minutes then wipe it off that would get rid of the tarnish, unless the innards of the lighter are regular metal, although it would make more sense that it was aluminum or more brass. Anyways, the good thing about Brass is the eventual patina, a lot of people don’t even want to wait for a natural patina and will do a forced patina. It’s why Brass is such a great metal for things like lighters, they don’t rust and the patina actually protects the brass....removing the need to coat it with anything....whoops

Nice restoration. I don't think evapo rust works on brass. Or vinegar as its tarnished brass. Also been buffing on a wheel for 28 yrs now. Doing large restorations and learnt alot from using a buffing machine just some good advice try not to overload with the compound. needs no more than 4 sec of compound and you will find it will give better results. And a higher shine. Overloading with compound doesn't really.helps and also will bind up with to much compound and the wheel will go black. Also if you get a wire brush you can clean your wheel at your 7 o'clock holding the wire brush with 2 hands But it turned out great. Maybe you should give your niebour washing machine a gag order. Enjoyed you restoration and a big hi across the pond uk

This video sounds relaxing when you restore the world war 1 lighter as new.

So cool im now on the hunt for one similar

Invest in NEVR-DULL for brass and copper! Used that in the US Navy for all the brass... and there was a lot! You could skipped the steel wool, polishing, and the brasso step with just that one thing.

Buy a media ( Like corn cob or walnut shells) tumbler like for reloaders brass for projects like this much better and faster plus it takes away less material just shines it up

Yea man. Get that knife going!

Ketchup for brass

Would love to see a knife restoration, not that knife, but a bigger, rustier one! :P

next time try electrolisys to get rid of the rust

I just bought one exactly like this, marked "Kaschie" for $8. It is mssing the little spring to push the flint up. Any idea where I might find a replacement? Great video! Thank you!

I've just found one of these in a field in Scotland. Thought it might be a explosive at first.

That's not a knife, THATS A KNIFE 🤣🔪

I kinda liked the old patina & look..

How do those soldiers machine the thread etc tho.. do they have some sort of workshop??

Very nice🙂

hey, very nice vid, i ordered me one of these to a couple of weeks ago to restore, its a little different, but same spirit, the flint-wheel thing has to be soldered on the lighter, is yours fine by just sticking it in?

I wonder what they have had used as combustible. There wasn't lighter fluid back in that time.

Great job as always!👍👍👍 Just let me know if you want to sell that beautiful old piece. And if you don't wanna sell it I can completely understand why you would want to keep it.😜😜😜 Also next time you're trying to polish up brass or copper or even aluminum. You should get yourself this wonderful product known as Nevr Dull.

You can use brass or copper using vinegar+salf for copper, tamarind paste+salt ( to scrub ) OR cut a lemon in to half, put some salt on it and scrub. You can see the results. Btw, to protect the shining long time, apply some oil and wipe with a cloth . If we start scrubbing with metal brush, slowly the material becomes thinner and thinner. A Tip from an Indian.

Parabéns pelo canal. Continue a produzir bons videos.

Have you still working in this works Just to know IAm from .. INDIA 🇮🇳 VIVEK... my English is not good but iam asking only

woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow

So cool 🙂 What was the acetone for and what is the tiny tic tac looking thing you put at the bottom of the lighter?

👍👍👍

Howdy from a little town in Texas called Big Spring. Ive heard that regular kitchen Ketchup also works on brass. But you never know huh? Well i hope to see more videos of you restoring things. Peace

Bro next time use sisors or cutterto cut the packets

Toothpaste works just as good or better

The video length was fine. If it is so short you can't demonstrate what you're doing, you might as well not make it at all. Good job.

Never cut TOWARD yourself. Boy Scout rule #1.

lol the bubbly noises

I really enjoyed this,however you need to #tag more descriptors in the video (lighter,trench art,restoration..etc),so as to drive more views to your video...😊 Also,if you keep the same style of taping,I got really strong A.S.M.R. vibes from this,and more videos similar to this would give you an outlet to a very large and growing community.. #ASMR...☺

would diesel work to fill the lighter up?

Nice work!!! Where can I get that lighter?

Maybe you can repair your neighbor's loud washing machine.

I wish I could mute my neighbors. The one next door is an a-hole who thinks 2am is the right time to scream at his kids and wife. And one over the fence thinks 7am is the perfect time to open a motorcycle fix it shop. Sad part I move out of my last apt because of this VERY thing.

Everyone: If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all. Me: some people could screw up a good dream

It turned out very well, even retained traces of history. I made a similar lighter with 12.7 mm. If interested, you can watch it on my channel.

You owe Mrs. Fix some new towels.

Should have nickel plated it.

Coming back yet?🙂

Me asking antique dealer: "What's the best way to ruin the value of any brass antique?" Antique dealer answers: "Remove the patina." At the end of the day? It is neither my property, nor is it my project.

I'm looking for someone to restore my late uncle's pistol lighter

It wasn’t too long

You wiped out over 100 years of patina and aging with brasso and polishing! Don't you see that? You could have made the thing work again but without wiping away all that history of aging. What a shame.

I really don't think it was trench art. It's just way too intricate

Boy I'm glad that wasn't my trench lighter.

Its brass...not steel. That's oxidation not rust. Brass cleaner would shine it up like new. Learn a little metallurgy.

Zippo wasted all that packaging.! SMH..!

This kind of stuff must remain untouched, it's like restoring a helmet..... You ruin his history because everything has a history back in history.

😢⚜⚜⚜⚙

Talking: - I went thumbs down, and cancelled the feed, and did not bother watching.

你在故意浪費時間！！！！