One bench, one lighter at a time

Nick works out of Leeds. Lighters arrive dead - seized hinges, perished seals, wicks that have not seen fuel since the seventies - and leave working.

Every one gets fully taken apart. Cleaned out. Whatever is worn gets swapped. Put back together. Petrol lighters get a new wick and cotton. Gas ones get their valve seals sorted, or new valves if the old ones are past it. Then it gets lit, and photographed lit, and only then does it go up for sale.

That is the whole business. There is no warehouse and no second pair of hands. It is why there are only ever about thirty of them at once, and why each one is the only one of its kind here.

Over 5 years that has come to 575 lighters sent out, and 135 people who left a review afterwards, averaging 4.9.