OneGuyFromBarlick

Get your paraffin lamps out occasionally and make sure they are clean and ready for use. I had to do a quick maintenance job by candle light last nigh before I could light my Vapalux lamp. I shall give my Tilley Lamp the same treatment!

Candles and the gas fire in chez Kev, I don't have a tilley lamp. Had to use a saucepan to make a brew, I was sure I had a kettle...

Kev, I've just chucked two kettles in the recycling, do you want to call round and go skip-diving? I can fit you up with a Tilley lamp if you want one, I have three in working condition.

Stanley wrote: ↑28 Feb 2017, 04:53 Kev, I've just chucked two kettles in the recycling, do you want to call round and go skip-diving? I can fit you up with a Tilley lamp if you want one, I have three in working condition.

I'd be very grateful for a Tilley lamp, thank you. I'll bob round at the weekend if that's OK?

Any time you like.....

If you have a cast iron frying pan the best tool to use with it to turn food over and keep the surface clean and smooth is a good quality paint scraper. Makes a lovely job of removing anything that has charred on the bottom and doesn't affect the non-stick properties of a well seasoned CI pan.

Mention of the virtues of a cast iron frying pan reminds me of a time when I was refurbishing the mixing boilers for the man who made the 'Maxilin Giant Flyers' in Swan No " Mill at Bolton. The pans were steam heated and boiled up the molasses and liquorice to make the liquorice outer casings of the sherbet-filled flyers. They had cast iron scrapers driven by a motor and gearbox on the top. I asked him if he wanted me to replace the scrapers with stainless steel ones and he said no, they had tried them and the liquorice didn't taste the same. I wonder whether a CI pan has similar properties?

If the Co-op refuse to stock Bruno, simply go online and buy it there. The Co-op's stock management system does not work in the customer's favour. Has retailing changed since I was 'Open All Hours'? I used to stock what my customers bought.......

Stanley wrote: ↑27 Feb 2017, 05:34 Get your paraffin lamps out occasionally and make sure they are clean and ready for use. I had to do a quick maintenance job by candle light last nigh before I could light my Vapalux lamp. I shall give my Tilley Lamp the same treatment!

I've sadly had to retire my two Tilleys - lighting kerosene/paraffin has transitioned from being a bulk product to a packaged one here in Oz, and the price has become extortionate in the process. Around $4 [~ 2.50GBP] per litre! It doesn't keep indefinitely, either.

So my emergency lighting is now a Coleman Dual Fuel 282-700T single mantle lantern, picked up for cheap on FleaBay, as I always have fresh petrol on hand for lawnmower fuel. 95 Premium petrol [has the longest shelf life of the local petrol types] is only about $1.40 per litre...

Morning Doug. I have no trouble with paraffin storage, perhaps we have a different fraction or it's the cooler temperatures. Yes it's expensive but as I only use them once in a blue moon if we have an outage that's no problem. Besides, I love old technology as you well know! I have a Primus stove as well.....
Kev could be calling this morning......

Stanley wrote: ↑04 Mar 2017, 04:34 Kev could be calling this morning......

I'll be round about 8:30 on my way to the shops

G'day Stanley. Yep, an admirer of old technology here, too.
As well as the Tilleys, my kero-fuelled collection includes a 1920's Primus stove [family legacy], a two-burner Coleman pressure stove, and a Companion blowlamp.

My current workshop heater is a 1970's Japanese-made kero unit, that I'm now running on scrounged Jet A1 aviation kerosene during winter. That stuff is fine in the wick-type heater, but I'm doubtful about using it in pressure lamps/stoves.

Kerosene isn't really used for domestic, or even industrial, heating here any more - hence its going to the pre-packed supply only. A far cry from the times when our next door neighbour, in suburban Melbourne, kept a 200L tap drum of kerosene in his garage, to run his Everhot kero water heater! When it needed to be refilled, the fuel merchant's tanker truck would arrive, and he'd wheel the drum down to the street for its refill.

Curiously enough, kero is still very popular as a domestic space heating fuel in Japan, and the hardware shops there sell it in bulk quite cheaply.

Kev's a lucky bloke there - the Tilleys are a great lamp. Very simple to maintain, too - and spare parts are still easy to get, even here.
We're fortunate to have a very long-established and knowledgeable 'lamp house' in Melbourne; http://www.twsands.com.au/

Edit: I guess I should say that by 'bulk supply', I mean filling of the customer's container from a bulk tank, or even bowser. Petrol company depots here once always had a kerosene bowser, along with the petrol and diesel fuel ones!

It used to be the same here Doug and all the ironmongers had a Paraffin tank from which they sold the fuel to customers who took their own cans.

Pilkington's used to sell Esso Blue. One of my errands when I was a lad. Dad had two fuel cans for the stoves and lamps in the greenhouses on his allotment. One in use and one in reserve, I used to take my trolley up for transport and later on my bike. Good opportunity for looking at the latest Airfix models on offer.

Our local ironmonger at the end of the street had a tank of paraffin. They were good friends with my parents so we were lucky enough to have ours delivered - delivery was combined with a social visit! We lived on a steep hill facing east and the bathroom was on that side, so a paraffin stove was used to warm up the room when it was bath night. Having a bath isn't the same without the smell of burning paraffin!

Meths used to be sold by the chemists but the last I got was at Shambles in the Town Square and they sell pre-packed paraffin as well.

If something is going well, don't question it too much, just enjoy it! This is triggered by the fact that I feel so well, have good energy levels and am enjoying life. It can't last of course, anno domini will get me in the end but in the meantime, Yippee!

If you're tempted by the promise of big savings to switch from one energy supplier to another think carefully and remember the number of times people have switched just before a price increase. Nothing is certain in this 'saving'.

Stanley wrote: ↑07 Mar 2017, 05:46 If you're tempted by the promise of big savings to switch from one energy supplier to another think carefully and remember the number of times people have switched just before a price increase. Nothing is certain in this 'saving'.

I switch suppliers when they can't (won't) give me the deal I want. My fixed price contract with Npower was moved to a different fixed price contract, at my request, about 12 months ago. The price increases that have been announced have no effect on me as it was a 2 year fixed price. My phone/broadband provider have managed to give me a reduced price contract 2 years running, just the thought of moving seems to prompt them to offer something

I know it's wrong Kev but do you know I just can't be bothered.

We have so many labour saving devices to choose from these days it's easy to forget that many a time the quickest and easiest solution to a problem is the old-fashioned way. Jack has a yellow rubber ball which he loves to chew and the yellow bits on the maroon carpet stand out like sore thumbs. The easiest solution is a dust pan and brush......

This is the time of the year when the moss build up on stone flags can get serious after the winter and be very slippy and dangerous. The best solution I have found over the years is Blue Daz washing powder scattered just before a light shower. It really does work!

Today's tip is an oldie really. Long years of preventative maintenance on machines has taught me that regular small doses of attention are far more efficient than occasional blitzes. I still keep up my routine of a light bleaching of my pint pot and the sink and taps once the boiling water and bleach has done its job in my pot. I can't prove anything of course but common sense tells me that this routine can do nothing but good and is very cheap and kind to the environment. Far better that waiting for a problem and using the savage unblocking chemicals readily available. These 'remedies' are some of the most dangerous chemicals on general sale and are almost always kept under the sink where they are easily accessible by small children..... Worth thinking about!

I have a child lock on the cupboard under the sink much to the indignation of a small grandson

Well done Kev! So many haven't.....