RelicRaider Lighter Review
Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 9:57 am
I have had the pleasure of a dealing with RelicRaider, of the custom "Elsa" Zippo fame. It was a transaction from start to finish that epitomizes the power of the internet to bring cottage hobby crafters and consumers together no matter the geographical location and how, with a little civility and communication, big box stores should fear this business model.
I got the #200 Hybrid badged zippo, since I like the metal badges and the size of the tank. I had hoped for a 1937 Replica, but he only had the resin badges and not the metal ones available.
From email to order to shipping to receiving was only about a week all told-not bad at all for a small hobbyist doing custom work. He emailed me throughout and let me know when it was shipped and followed up as well.
The lighter frame itself is a standard Zippo with no improvements-the badges though, are very cleanly machined smooth, and mated precisely to the flip lid and main body. The real draw of this design is the Clover imprint. Zippo makes one of these for around 40 bones, but the design in painted on, and subject to scratching and removal with time. These metal badges have the design in a resin/urethane seemingly poured into the metal. There is a 'u' shaped channel that you can see in the profile, something like this __---------___, where the dashed lines are the urethane. The black is the metal badge, the blue and green are the urethane of the badge itself. (I attached a crude rendering at the bottom)
The coolest thing is that the clover is translucent! You can actually looking 'into' it and see the little veins of the clover-its like a mold, not just painted in or on the surface. The body itself is quite heavy-more so than my cell phone, more like a set of keys. I definitely won't be losing this. All in all, great work by a really nice guy and a really neat conversation starter even if they don't know the origins. You can also buy just the badges if you want to take a crack at putting them on one of your own lighters.
I got the #200 Hybrid badged zippo, since I like the metal badges and the size of the tank. I had hoped for a 1937 Replica, but he only had the resin badges and not the metal ones available.
From email to order to shipping to receiving was only about a week all told-not bad at all for a small hobbyist doing custom work. He emailed me throughout and let me know when it was shipped and followed up as well.
The lighter frame itself is a standard Zippo with no improvements-the badges though, are very cleanly machined smooth, and mated precisely to the flip lid and main body. The real draw of this design is the Clover imprint. Zippo makes one of these for around 40 bones, but the design in painted on, and subject to scratching and removal with time. These metal badges have the design in a resin/urethane seemingly poured into the metal. There is a 'u' shaped channel that you can see in the profile, something like this __---------___, where the dashed lines are the urethane. The black is the metal badge, the blue and green are the urethane of the badge itself. (I attached a crude rendering at the bottom)
The coolest thing is that the clover is translucent! You can actually looking 'into' it and see the little veins of the clover-its like a mold, not just painted in or on the surface. The body itself is quite heavy-more so than my cell phone, more like a set of keys. I definitely won't be losing this. All in all, great work by a really nice guy and a really neat conversation starter even if they don't know the origins. You can also buy just the badges if you want to take a crack at putting them on one of your own lighters.
