101 Ways to Use a Dead Bic Lighter (let's make a list!)

I end up with dead Bic lighters. Not as a smoker, but as an outdoorsman -- there's always one in my pocket. The butane gets used up. Or it leaks out in my pocket when the lever gets accidentally pressed (haven't set my pants on fire yet).

So, a dead Bic. No butane but lots of sparking life left in the flint. There must be a way to utilize this.

The spark from a dead Bic is not nearly as strong and hot as traditional flint and steel, and a fraction of those mischmetal "metal match" gizmos. So it takes a bit of engineering to turn spark into flame.

Can you think of a way to use it?

I keep one with my charcloth. If you spin the wheel carefully several times, you'll build up a little pile of ground-up "stuff", which can then be carefully dumped onto the charcloth. Then a spark from the lighter onto that pile of stuff will light all that "stuff" and light the charcloth.

Also, happy Thanksgiving!

James Bridger wrote:I keep one with my charcloth. If you spin the wheel carefully several times, you'll build up a little pile of ground-up "stuff", which can then be carefully dumped onto the charcloth. Then a spark from the lighter onto that pile of stuff will light all that "stuff" and light the charcloth.

Nice! I hadn't thought about char cloth.

Also good for lighting a gas torch. I use one at the forge if I only need to heat something thin, like the end of something which is about to become a rivet.

I end up with dead Bic etc lighters because I'm the kind of person who picks stuff up off the ground. Some work, some don't.
I keep a dropper bottle of rubbing alcohol next to my candles, one drop on the wick and the bic lights it.  Basically makes it a zippo, to have a wick with a flammable substance on it needing only a spark. I wonder if I still have my zippo? It's packed someplace if I do.

:D

Pearl Sutton wrote:I end up with dead Bic etc lighters because I'm the kind of person who picks stuff up off the ground. Some work, some don't.
I keep a dropper bottle of rubbing alcohol next to my candles, one drop on the wick and the bic lights it.  Basically makes it a zippo, to have a wick with a flammable substance on it needing only a spark. I wonder if I still have my zippo? It's packed someplace if I do.

:D

That's a really good idea Pearl! Definitely borrowing that one. :)  I saw a clip of a Russian feller sitting on a motor bike. He put his finger in the gas tank and got some fuel on it, then held his finger against the spark plug, gave the bike a kick and set his finger on fire and then used it to light his cigarette. I was seriously impressed. LOL.

Would the flint and spring be useful for some application?

I can't confirm because I don't have a refillable lighter but could the flints be scavenged from the Bic for something like a Zippo?

Before tiny keychain flashlights and cell phones were a thing, I used the extra "flint flicks" from my pocket Bic to light my way in complete darkness.

Two flicks of the flint wheel give enough light and persistence of vision to keep from bumping into things or falling down the stairs.

Timothy Norton wrote:Would the flint and spring be useful for some application?

James' post above suggests it could be pulled out and crushed to enhance a firestarter. I know that the Bic composite flints slowly expand when exposed to atmospheric moisture, and will eventually bind in place. Sometimes you can whack the base on a brick and they will come loose. If that fails, removing the flint with pliers might still add one last use.

Measuring stick: a Bic lighter is exactly 8cm long from the base to the top of the flint wheel.

EDIT: And scrolling down, there's gir bot again with perfect suggestions for related  threads. Here's a taco for you, GB!

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:

Timothy Norton wrote:Would the flint and spring be useful for some application?

James' post above suggests it could be pulled out and crushed to enhance a firestarter. I know that the Bic composite flints slowly expand when exposed to atmospheric moisture, and will eventually bind in place. Sometimes you can whack the base on a brick and they will come loose. If that fails, removing the flint with pliers might still add one last use.

I think......and I don't know for sure, so don't quote me on it.......that the material in a bic lighter is something besides flint. It's my understanding, that, with a traditional flint and steel, the flint removes teeny tiny pieces off of the steel, which then basically combust in the air. I think the opposite happens with a nice lighter, that the steel removes material from the "flint" and that material combusts. Perhaps it's magnesium? I don't know if that info is correct ven useful, just an observation.

The striker wheels are very hard, several you tubes on making a knife sharpener with two wheels.

It seems like the material that makes sparks in lighters is ferrocerium. Those sparks should be extremely hot. Might be useful for lighting thermite in thermite welding?

Unconventional uses for Bics that I've seen:

- Beer bottle opener (for non-twist caps)

- Emergency windshield ice scraper (hold bottom flat against glass)

James Bridger wrote:I keep one with my charcloth. If you spin the wheel carefully several times, you'll build up a little pile of ground-up "stuff", which can then be carefully dumped onto the charcloth. Then a spark from the lighter onto that pile of stuff will light all that "stuff" and light the charcloth.

Also, happy Thanksgiving!

I watched a survivalist video where the guy had the same basic idea as James with the charcloth, but instead of charcloth he scraped the plastic housing of the lighter into a small pile of shavings and used the same 'flint powder' trick to ignite the plastic.

A Bic lighter is sort of a universally understood thing and a consistent size wherever you go.

Could you add one to a photo and say "Bic lighter for scale?"

EDIT: LOL, just saw a Reddit post that did exactly that.

I light my gas stove burners with a bic sparker, along with my propane torch.
I see ewetube videos where they screw fill nozzles from paintball guns into the lighter to make it a refillable lighter.