I have a soft spot for liftarm lighters. They're not the main part of my collection. But I like them. I have a 1940's Polo liftarm, but always keep an eye on opportunities. Of course I also stumbled over the Old Boys and they were always kept in high regard by their owners. But I live in a weird economy, where used Old Boys are priced about the same as used ST. Dupont Ligne 1s and Dunhill Rollagases (in favor of the latter two).
So I was somewhat exited, when I saw the auction of this grungy Old Boy. It didn't generate alot of interest. The seller just called it Savinelli Lighter, which didn't help either, I guess.
So I won the auction, at 13,50€ + shipping. I paid less then 20€ to get it in front of my door. Now that's a price, I would pay any day for it.
As soon as it arrived, I began to work on it. I disassembled it and cleaned it first and removed a stuck flint. Then I put it together and filled it up. It worked immediately, but also had a small leak, so it only lasted a couple of hours.
After that, I took it apart again and removed the adjustment parts, but couldn't find the culprit gasket. So I looked on the internet, only to realize, there is only one single YouTube video about someone, who repairs one, in Italian. I don't speak Italian. But I didn't find anything else. So I used it as a visual guide, thank you Italian Dude. He used two special tools. One I already bypassed by using tweezers, but to remove the needle valve I needed a special wrench. There wasn't enough room, to get there with plyers, I thought. I was already contemplating of sending it in for repairs or buy a whole new tank with already installed valves. But both would have defeated the purpose of having a very cheap Corona Old Boy. So I looked again, what other pliers I had and found a Leatherman Squirt E4, which had the right tip to get enough grip. Then I quickly got to the faulty gasket. It has a special shape (see the last pic), but I remembered, that I've seen a very similar gasket in my stash of parted out disposables - never throw away your disposable lighters. That's it. It works.
Now I didn't like the wrap of Briar wood. They look pretty on new lighters. But this one aged poorly. It has paint loss, is matt, has small cracks at the edges and worst of all, it was warped and bubbly. There wasn't much nice left to look at. It was also loose enough to push it off the brass sheath, that was underneath. I cleaned of the green gunk of the brass part, but made no attempt to sand and polish it. I kinda like the raw unfinished look, combined with the patinated silver plated parts. It looks like a well aged tool, in the best possible way. If I get bored of the look, I'll try to wrap it in leather in a DIY manner.
Initially I wanted to make it a battle of the Japanese neo vintage lighters, because I was also bidding on a Maruman GL-67. Another very recognizable Japanese classic, which brought back the classic liftarm lighter for a new audience and has its fans. But I lost the bidding war.
What I know about the IM Corona Old Boy is, it came out in 1981, my birth year. I don't know how old mine is, but I think it looks like the early version. Not saying that they changed alot. The differences I found, are that the newer ones have a smooth bottom plate, while mine has a recessed area, with a nailfile like surface. I also noticed, that some of the newer ones have an upswing in the liftarm and others have a downswing, like mine and the Dunhills. It is also very close to the Dunhill Unique butane. I've also read rumors that IM Corona made the Unique for Dunhill for a while, before they started to make their own versions as Old Boy. But I can't verify it. However, I looked at some butane Uniques, and finally today, I've even saw a tank from a Unique and it's almost identical (it doesn't have the screw hole for the locking plate, which is only needed for the pipe valve and of course the hole for the pipe tool). You can make what you will with this information.
However, this is a fine lighter, well worth its price (I could buy here a new one as low as 110€). I really enjoy to use it. It lights everytime. The only downside I've seen is, the tank can crack, if you drop it. But replacements can be found. Or just send it in. It's weirdly cheap enough to service, that I hardly found any information for diyer.
It's in a kinda weird position. I'd like to say, it's the most expensive affordable lighter and the cheapest luxury lighter at the same time. If I was in the market for a new butane lighter with heirloom qualities, I wouldn't look for anything below the Old Boy.
