The Story
Every lighter has already lived a life.
I want to make sure it lives another.
How it started
It began as a gift.
It became an obsession.
REWICKED started in London, with a birthday and a problem: I wanted to gift my friend something that wasn't just another thing. Not disposable, not forgettable, not made last year to be thrown away next. So, I bought an old petrol Zippo to refurbish. Something about it caught me. The weight. The finish. The way someone had clearly thought about how it should feel to hold, not just how it should work. It was an accessory in the truest sense: designed to be carried, to be noticed, to say something about the person who reached for it. I couldn't put it down.
So, I ordered five more petrol oldies from ebay. I told myself I was curious. Little did I know this would open the floodgates into the world of vintage lighters.
They arrived in various states. Some pristine, some rough, all interesting. I started noticing things I'd never thought about. The particular click of a hinge built by someone who cared. The smell of fresh fuel. The simple fact that a tool made before I was born still did its one job perfectly. I fell into wick diameters and flint hardnesses and the small differences between a Ronson and a Colibri. One gift turned into a lot of late evenings. And then, inevitably: this one just needs a new wick… That one needs a flint… I could fix these.
That was it, really. The repairs followed naturally, and the rest is history.
The more I gave away, the more people asked where they could get one. Not collectors, just ordinary people who wanted a single, beautiful, working object worth carrying. REWICKED is for them.
The lighter that started it
The philosophy
A lighter is meant to be used.
A good looking one, even more so.
Every lighter is brought back by hand. A new wick is threaded through, the flint tube cleared of decades of grit, a fresh flint dropped in. The flint wheel and casing also receive a treatment. By the time it reaches you, all that's left to do is add fuel and strike.
Petrol, 1950s
Gas, 1970s
Petrol, 1960s
Why vintage?
They stopped making them
like this.
Pick up a modern disposable, a plastic throwaway from a corner shop, and then pick up a lighter machined from solid brass fifty years ago. You feel the difference before you can explain it. One was built to be binned. The other was built to be kept.
These are artefacts of a time when everyday objects were made to last and made to be looked at: tight tolerances, chrome polished to a mirror, a flint wheel that throws a shower of sparks... They survived decades in pockets and drawers and glove boxes. And with a little care, they'll survive decades more.
It's also why a good lighter is more than a tool. It's an accessory, a quiet signature, the one thing in your pocket with a past. The kind of object you keep, not replace.
I focus on the golden era, roughly the 1940s through the 1980s, and the names that defined it: Zippo, Ronson, Colibri, Penguin, the list could go on. Beautiful, functional, built for a lifetime. I just make sure that lifetime keeps going.