u/Anzio-Carbine1944

From left to right the 2025 80th anniversary green crackle, my original 1943 black crackle (sans 99% of the crackle!), my custom painted 1941 replica black crackle (was done for reenactment purposes, have done several), and my official black crackle replica (with sanded edges of course). Not just a Zippo collector, but I'm also a huge world war II collector, still on the lookout for an appropriate insert for my 1943, it currently has a replica insert inside of it as the original is far beyond repair

Rambo the fluffy chicken

Found this little gem in an antique store for a whole whopping $10, haven't made a purchase that fast in a while! Three barrel hinge, nickel silver insert, yes please!

Up until just a few years ago during the you know what my collection was probably about five times this size. I've since moved to a new home and decided to get the collection back out on display, keeping modern on the top shelf and vintage on the bottom (excluding the VE day zippo), really glad to have them back out where everyone can see them

Usually I would just say it's an insert and trash it, but this is a 14 hole 1940s insert and I would hate to just throw it away, any ideas or any advice as to what can be done for this? Or is it completely shot that needs to just be left alone or thrown out?

The last couple of days I've seen three or four fake Vietnam zippos on here, I figured I'd go ahead and throw one up here so that maybe some people could see an example of what they ought to look like. This one belonged to my grandfather, he was 82nd airborne. Something people should look out for if they're looking for a real one is that the patterns and phrases are almost exclusively from a pattern book, the same ones tend to show up pretty frequently, another thing that they get completely wrong on these fakes is how deep The engraving is, I have had many different examples and have held nearly a hundred at this point, all of them have the same depth of engraving which usually doesn't go much past the nickel layer, sometimes as you can see on this one it will brush lightly into the brass, and the engravings were never filled with black paint, another thing that fakes always have wrong is the excessive amount of wear, often having very little Chrome left or just bare brass, this lighter was carried through war, and then carried around in the pocket for about 40 years, and a lot of the Chrome is worn off, but the nickel layer is still intact, as can be seen in the last two photographs it is very difficult to naturally wear all the way down to the brass on a Zippo at least on the flat areas, on the edges and corners as can be seen on this lighter too, wearing all the way down to the brass is not uncommon especially if it's been carried long enough. I love this lighter and it is incredibly sentimental to me, please feel free to ask questions, and thank you all for listening to my little rant!