Zach Attack!

[GuitarMyFriend]

Well there's a few of us. We'll have to get together in the middle of the state sometime. Well I'm pretty middle I guess... you all can just come visit me!!! Pack up your pipes Michigan BoBs!!! My apartment aways!!!
Zach

 

[George Kaplan]

GK,
I'm warning you... one more post about locking targets with me and I'm going to detonate that catnip cigar C4 I put together.

Ok, GMF. Since you're threatening my cat now, I'll back off. Now that I think about it, I may have given the wrong impression with the packing material I used for that snuff I sent you. Sometimes it just takes two pipes, a pound of 'baccy samples, and a thousand pipe cleaners to get something to fit properly in a box.
I'm loving the IMCO lighter, BTW. Here's a related bit of K-Town trivia for you: In 1928 Kalamazoo's Ernst Bowers was inspired by an IMCO (different model) to start making an improved version in his new machine shop on Willard street. During the Depression, lighter sales kept the company afloat, and during WWII Bowers MFG Co. produced 55% of the lighters purchased by the government.
Thanks again, Zach. I really appreciate this.

 

[GuitarMyFriend]

You mean like this Bowers Surefire Trench Lighter I got right her....???



Marked K-Zoo???

Zach

 

[George Kaplan]

That's the one! Originally they were made from brass and called the "Kalamazoo Slide Sleeve". Once brass became scarce during the war, they started making them from blued steel and changed the name to Sure Fire. Looks like you've got a fairly intact example. I hope you didn't pay too much for it. One like that sold on ebay this weekend for over $100.

 

[GuitarMyFriend]

Didn't pay a dime. I bought a pipe rack from a girl with a couple dirty pipes (one being a Danco Skull Figurine pipe) and she threw in some cigar holders, and old Zippo, and that Sure fire! 25 bucks I payed for the whole thing!
Zach

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Zach: Tinsky at amsmoke.com will provide you with those blocks/stems. Call him if you want other stem options. He'll work with ya.

8)

 

[GuitarMyFriend]

Perfect! I'm looking forward to it! Actually just today I was designing my retired days shop. I want it to look just like my Gramps'. Crammed full of anything and everything you can imagine!
Zach

 

[George Kaplan]

Didn't pay a dime.

Glad I wasn't bidding against you, then. I've been trying to add a few of those older ones to my collection. The ebay market for them is volatile, to say the least. That one that went for $127 was listed as a WWI trench lighter. It's a common mistake, but they weren't made before 1929 and they weren't stamped "Sure Fire" until WWII. I looked at the bidding history of the two guys who ran it up to that price. They mostly bought military collectibles. I think somebody's gonna be pissed when they learn their expensive "WWI" lighter was made in the 1940s and is worth about 25 bucks.
Hey, out of curiosity, where did that old coin with the dragon come from?

 

[GuitarMyFriend]

Well, My Gramps was a coin collector. One time a potential seller came over with two cans (old spam) of coins, one foreign, one American. My Gramps wasn't interested in the foreign but I was, so my He bought the American, and the guy through in the foreign. That's how I came about them. I got TONS! If you've ever heard of Geocaching (look it up, it's awesome) everynow and than I'll leave a coin in a cache. I can look it up for you if you'd like in one of his books!
Zach

 

[DrumsAndBeer]

Very nice bombing, however bombing someone's cat is a truly classic move.