Product Description
Russ, I received the lamps and they are beautiful! Thank you again. – Dale H. (USA)
FINAL INVENTORY!
Product On Hold. I have a few caps left, but no time to do the conversions. I may re-visit this product line later, or I may sell the caps at auction (eBay, etc.).
New Note: 11/9/21. These have been out of stock for a long while. We’ve collected another batch of torch bodies, and we’ve had a matching batch of caps turned . If these lamps are marked as “in stock” on the website, it only means we have the parts to make you a lamp in-house. They are still a custom product, made when you order. Figure about 15 business days to make and ship one under normal circumstances, longer if the “Patience” slider is flying on the front page of the GW website. If you’ve been watching this page and seeing the lamps at one price, please don’t be shocked to discover that they’ve gone up. The lamp bodies have been commanding a higher price at the antique malls, and the lamp caps jumped, too. These are not minor price increases that we can absorb, so the lamp prices are moving up. The lamps would be entirely unaffordable if we billed for the time it takes to locate the lamp bodies. Fortunately, my wife loves visiting antique malls hunting for Jadeite glassware, so I tag along on her hunting trips and keep my eye peeled for vintage torches. Have no fear, at these prices, we’ll never ship you one made from a dented body.
Converted from brass torches. We do the conversions in-house, with one exception: Daryll Whitehead and his crew are now making the caps for us, so these are his lamps in more than merely the name & inspiration. There is a load of info about these lamps, including a story about being apprenticed to Daryll, on the website—please visit and enjoy the read. Feed these lamps a strict diet of denatured alcohol—nothing else!
I strongly recommend alcohol lamps for working the lumps out of cane. There is a mite of fire danger, but there is also magic … and silence. You can work cane and think, or listen to classical concertos.
The worst is information ever put into print about cane is that it is inherently dangerous to work with using your bare hands. You will get splinters, you will get cuts, you will get burns—but not many. You will also be in tune with your material. The rewards are worth the few hazards. When flaming, if you use your bare hands, you’ll be more likely to prevent damage to your cane. You’ll quickly learn when the cane is hot enough to be malleable and not so hot as to be damaged. Especially when using flame to straighten glued up rod sections, you must use your bare hands with your thumbs close to the area being flamed. If you can’t keep your fingers on the cane just to the sides of the kink you’re trying to work out, then the cane is too hot and about to scorch. The key is to keep the cane moving, both spinning it and moving it from side to side. Warm it gently, then bend it to your awe; warm it not, and break it all to pieces.
(Apologies to Wm. Shakespeare, Henry V, Act First, Scene Second.)
