u/nechronius

With people sharing their lighter maintenance kits I figured I'd finally share mine. This is just for quick maintenance to clear stuck flints and easy jobs like re-wick/repack. And for replacing flints for long term storage. This is not for deep cleaning, lighter body repair, or other serious work.

Bonus maintenance on a red felt 1967 lighter with a stuck flint and scraping off excessive soot on the flint wheel and chimney. Quick refuel and flint and it fired right up.

As a jaded collector who has shot down the hopes and dreams of many aspiring Vietnam War Zippo owners, I too was very doubtful that this would be anything special. The main thing that attracted me to it was the 3 letters at the top which have a very special meaning to me.

All engraving was done by a third party and not factory work. Bonus that it's a "left handed" lighter which suits me just fine.

I finally got around to cleaning it up a bit since I intend to carry it. Since I'm not a smoker, I intend to use a butane insert but I still wanted to clear the insert of any stuck flint.

That's when I found out that the insert had been custom engraved. The insert is a 1961-67 model, so a little older than expected. The real surprise was the markings.

The obverse has "Dickey Birds" as a caption with musical notes. There appears to be a woman with legs spread and what seems to be a goose(?) that is clearly sticking its beak somewhere. There is a second bird standing by.

On the reverse there is the caption "Things to do today" and the image of two people lying down in a close embrace.

I'm not going to say definitively this is a Vietnam War Zippo, but this is the closest thing in my collection that would seem to imply that.

Fun fact, the song "Dickey Bird" was featured in the 1948 movie Three Daring Daughters. While the song has nothing to do with the engraving, I'm sure it's not hard to draw some connection.

https://youtu.be/Nb8Dlv2IeMY