I’ve hankered after one for years but never found one that I liked, wasn’t ornamental or LED!

Well my lovely wife sourced me a beautiful example and gave it to me for Christmas. It’s from France and is quite a simple design all glass and about 350mm tall.

The wick that came with the lamp burned very quickly. I’m assuming it had degraded over its years in storage and its capillary action impaired to the point where the wick was the fuel rather than the oil. I ordered some new reels of wick and have now cut to length and trimmed ready for tonight.

My question: how long should say, eight inches of wick last?

Obviously depends on usage but I’ve had one I got in the eighties and on the original wick (there were about 20 years it didn’t get used) I use it probably twice a month for a couple of hours each time. Make sure you don’t have too much showing and make sure there is plenty of oil in the reservoir

This is going back to my memories of the widespread power cuts in the 70s when Mum and dad used a few oil lamps.
I ‘think’ the wick should last ages but this may friend on how high you’ve got it turned up.

Did you soak the wick in oil before you used it?

It should last almost indefinitely if the lamp isn’t turned up too high.

My question: how long should say, eight inches of wick last?

Fnarr

Did you soak the wick in oil before you used it?

Fnarr

My question: how long should say, eight inches of wick last?

All night baby, all night.

Plenty oil in the reservoir, and not too much wick showing then it should last for ages.

We have an oil lamp for use in the cockpit of an evening at anchor. The last wick lasted ages – 5ish seasons?

Allow the new wick to coak for a few of hours at least, light then reduce the wick to around <5mm or so. Trick is to ensure nice flame and no black smoke. You want to burn clean with minimal/no discoloration on the globe.

Lovely things.

Tillydog – have you a Tilly lamp too? 😁

have you a Tilly lamp too?

Sadly not 😁

(Just a hurricane lamp now that used to do service as an anchor light on our boat, but is now purely ornamental)

Thanks for the useful and not so uselful replies.

Be careful, if your house becomes infiltrated by assassins the oil lamp will always be knocked over and smashed at the bottom of a curtain to facilitate plot expedition

We’ve got a Feuer in der Hand oil lamp. Use it lots whether away in the van or down by the river of an evening in summer.

With the correct oil the wick lasts forever. Have once had some oil that wasn’t the correct stuff and the wick lasted only a few hours.

As said above, you don’t need lots of wick showing and they’re shouldn’t be any black smoke.

The GF’s dad designed the press for them. They’re not expensive, but work well.

https://www.thebushcraftstore.co.uk/ekmps/shops/bduimportsltd/images/feuerhand-storm-lantern-the-original-german-lantern-and-the-best.-%5B3%5D-3779-p.jpg