Mantles

[sjsjr86s]

so what do y'all like to run? I really do like silk lites but they really hurt the wallet. the gold tops are purdy but hard to come by and mucho expensive I purchased some of those peerless ones, the 2c-hg, it's strange they say that they're supposed to burn whiter than the yttrium Colemans yet the Colemans are whiter (did a side by side test on my propane coleman with some early 2000's units) however as the peerless ones get a few hours on them I have noticed that they have lost a bit of that golden tinge and are whitening up. I noticed though that when I look around the internet about mantles, nobody really talks about the fact that Coleman called for an uninterrupted 30 minute burn in period on their first run after being lit for 1st time. I have found that doing so helps the mantle form a nice purdy spherical shape. anyways can't wait to hear from you guys, just sitting in the driveway right now with my 220f hissing away and the bonfire crackling. buddy heater warming my bum. happy New year!

[Hamtramck_Stan]

so what do y'all like to run? I really do like silk lites but they really hurt the wallet... just sitting in the driveway right now with my 220f hissing away and the bonfire crackling. buddy heater warming my bum. happy New year!

I really enjoy your description by the bonfire with the 220f "hissing away". If you're in CA, then you have a half-hour left of 2020. Happy New Year!

[Gasman64]

Everything I have is Peerless, before the latest move to the new factory. I have yet to try any of the newest production, so for now, I'm content. Speaking of content, it sounds like a relaxing time you're having with the bonfire and 220F. I wanted to have a fire New Year's Eve, but have chosen to wait until New Year's Day, as rain is in the forecast (I live in the woods, and lots of dry leaves around) and I have plenty to burn. There'll be a 237 going then...
Happy New Year to you, too!

[sjsjr86s]

Everything I have is Peerless, before the latest move to the new factory. I have yet to try any of the newest production, so for now, I'm content. Speaking of content, it sounds like a relaxing time you're having with the bonfire and 220F. I wanted to have a fire New Year's Eve, but have chosen to wait until New Year's Day, as rain is in the forecast (I live in the woods, and lots of dry leaves around) and I have plenty to burn. There'll be a 237 going then...
Happy New Year to you, too!

thank you! curious if you know how to tell if mants are from the new or old factory; clues on packaging or marks on them? sorry to hear about the rain in the forecast but the sun will shine much brighter when it does im certain.

[Gasman64]

I'm not sure, but I think the newer mantles, made in India, are labeled as such on the package. The former facility was in the Philippines.
Oh, and it's OK about the rain; I feel more comfortable with a larger fire if everything's wet around here.

[mksmth]

My experience is mixed. I prefer peerless for their shape and durability over the new Colemans. The shape really comes from how well you shape the mantel before the first burn in. I like to stretch it out and form it. As far as brightness I have tied on some new Colemans that will burn your eyes out they are so bright. What drives me mad about the Coleman's is out of a 4 pack at least 1 will always get holes almost immediately.
Dad gave me an un-opened 4 pack of mid 70s gold tops he found in a box under his bed. I'm dieing to try them but if I ever open it I'll tie them into something special.
Mike at OCP has a great price on the 4 pack of peerless.

[sjsjr86s]

My experience is mixed. I prefer peerless for their shape and durability over the new Colemans. The shape really comes from how well you shape the mantel before the first burn in. I like to stretch it out and form it. As far as brightness I have tied on some new Colemans that will burn your eyes out they are so bright. What drives me mad about the Coleman's is out of a 4 pack at least 1 will always get holes almost immediately.
Dad gave me an un-opened 4 pack of mid 70s gold tops he found in a box under his bed. I'm dieing to try them but if I ever open it I'll tie them into something special.
Mike at OCP has a great price on the 4 pack of peerless.

yes i feel the same on the gold tops and silkies... save those for the liquid fuel lamp and there WILL be a burn in celebration!

[Gunhippie]

Keep your eyes open at yard/garage/tag sales. I find Silkies pretty often and usually very cheap.



That's 22 2-packs of Silkies, mostly from the '70s and '80s. $1/pack. Fuel was cheap, too!

[Pancholoco1911]

Keep your eyes open at yard/garage/tag sales. I find Silkies pretty often and usually very cheap.



That's 22 2-packs of Silkies, mostly from the '70s and '80s. $1/pack. Fuel was cheap, too!

That’s hoarding lol good find

[sjsjr86s]

wow nice find! score!

[Gunhippie]

wow nice find! score!

Haul of the year for me!

[Chucker]

Silk-lites are rare as hens teeth around here. No go with them.

You made a good point Mr. or Ms. sjsjr86s, all mantles I run get a burn-in time of 20-30 minutes for the past 5 years or so. I think it makes a difference.

[rob_pontius]

There is a difference in the peerless packaging. The old ones say Gasman Mfg made in the Philippines. The new ones say Indo Aurlicht made in India. The old ones are very good. The new ones aren't very white and they're very brittle.

[wpnaes]

Mike at OCP keeps me in mantles. Peerless.

[sjsjr86s]

Silk-lites are rare as hens teeth around here. No go with them.

You made a good point Mr. or Ms. sjsjr86s, all mantles I run get a burn-in time of 20-30 minutes for the past 5 years or so. I think it makes a difference.

it's mr, there is a mrs but she just rolls her eyes when i start talking about lanterns and mantles I was just talking with gasman over p.m. about how not white the indian peerless glow and it's odd, now don't fault me for this, but I grew up on propane (80s baby) and I'm only starting to scratch the surface of how great these liquid fuel appliances are but i have mostly propane lights in my camp (for now) s I ran an experiment on my propane 275 and notice that on it the thorium peerless mantles burned more golden yellow then the yttrium colemans which seemed whiter. the way I did this was put a Coleman on one side and a peerless on the other. today, my little 220 blew a hole in one of the mantles (silkies, ugh) but saw an opportunity to do a comparison so I replaced the one blown silky with a peerless and lit it up. after 30 to 45 minutes of running I found the peerless thorium (India factory) was burning just about as white as the other silky that was on there already which tells me that the white gas probably Burns hotter than propane. so I guess with the peerless they really like to be driven hard to get that white light out of them or else if not you get a golden brown. I get the same golden brown color when I turn the pricker up on the 220. so again that tells me to get the white light out of the peerless you really have to give em a lot of heat. they are slightly larger than the 21a's so that makes sense. so now my strategy will be to run yttrium on the propane units and thorium on the liquid fuel ones. awful waste of money if you're not pushing them and I usually like to run the propane at a lower brightness and use the liquid fuel for the sunshine of the night (or for playing cards with pricker up)

[sjsjr86s]

Just picked up some mantles (i know) from EPay... there are some "sun flame" that come with the package ...any love for those?

[Leviticus_Tomethreus]

Just picked up some mantles (i know) from EPay... there are some "sun flame" that come with the package ...any love for those?

I would keep for the collection. Old thoriated mantles. Probably like silkies

[sjsjr86s]

Just picked up some mantles (i know) from EPay... there are some "sun flame" that come with the package ...any love for those?

I would keep for the collection. Old thoriated mantles. Probably like silkies

Ok cool i'll hold onto them thank you!

[holliswood]

Just picked up some mantles (i know) from EPay... there are some "sun flame" that come with the package ...any love for those?

If those are the 78’s they are awesome. At least the one I tried is
I only have 3 packs but should be getting some more soon.

[sjsjr86s]

here is the haul....

Screenshot_20210330-162009.jpg

who knows maybe i bought it from someone here

[Rfieldbuilds]

Sunflames are top notch thorium mantles to be used sparingly and on good condition lanterns.

[sjsjr86s]

so I am finding thorium burn brighter and yellow but the yttrium burn less bright and more white am i seeing things correctly?

[holliswood]

I’ve had two mantles with thorium that have taken on a color other than bright white. One was on a newly restored lantern early on in my collecting and put one on and it stayed a dull yellow. The other took on a pinkish hue after putting some Sta-Bil in a fount of gas a couple of years ago.

I recently put on some current production Coleman 21’s on a 220h and they’re blinding white light. I’ll see if I have a picture of it.

[holliswood]

I was impressed with their production.
Not bad for $2.84 for a four pack.

[sjsjr86s]

the new stock coleman are fairly impressive, I have a stock of those too. American Mantle are surprisingly good. I like them all... and collecting them. India Peerless are meh tho.... but they burn good on my 5107

[sjsjr86s]

lucked out on this lot haul came with 4.5 pair of 78 sunflame and 3.5 packs of silklites... 2 packs (4 mantles) of them coarse weave. any difference in performance vs the fine weave or is it more antiquated of a method of mfg? they smell a little musty any cause for concern or suggested treatments? I was thinking of putting them in a toaster oven on "keep warm" maybe 200 degrees but not sure if that'll do more harm than good. thanks all!

[kellyblues]

Interesting thread ( punn intended )

I haven't purchased a mantle in probably close to 10 years. That doesn't mean I haven't used any. I still have a case left over from when I was selling parts. And the last time I was at Ernie's I bought every silk mantle and gold top he had for sale. Combine that with Bob Meyer and Don " the junkman " both sent me a ton of mantles they got in bulk, I haven't needed to buy any. On the phone with Don one day he said he had a line on bulk silk thorium mantles. I'm sure he told me from where but I don't remember now. Anyway I offered to buy some of he got them. Well, a couple of weeks later I get the bubble mailer absolutely jam packed full of these mantles from Don. I called him and offered to pay for them, he wouldn't take my money. Just the kind of guy he was. I've got about a dozen or so left of those. Around the same time Bob Myer and I were talking about mantles and he had just gotten a couple of cases of peerless so I got a bunch of those from him. Don also got some from Bob. ( I guess some of us are mantle junkies ) . So as of today I don't have a mantle newer than probably 10 years old. Coleman, peerless, american , sunflame a couple others and some no brand. Plastic totes full. When I get back from vacation I plan on purchasing some newer ones and check out the difference.

[sjsjr86s]

Interesting thread ( punn intended )

I haven't purchased a mantle in probably close to 10 years. That doesn't mean I haven't used any. I still have a case left over from when I was selling parts. And the last time I was at Ernie's I bought every silk mantle and gold top he had for sale. Combine that with Bob Meyer and Don " the junkman " both sent me a ton of mantles they got in bulk, I haven't needed to buy any. On the phone with Don one day he said he had a line on bulk silk thorium mantles. I'm sure he told me from where but I don't remember now. Anyway I offered to buy some of he got them. Well, a couple of weeks later I get the bubble mailer absolutely jam packed full of these mantles from Don. I called him and offered to pay for them, he wouldn't take my money. Just the kind of guy he was. I've got about a dozen or so left of those. Around the same time Bob Myer and I were talking about mantles and he had just gotten a couple of cases of peerless so I got a bunch of those from him. Don also got some from Bob. ( I guess some of us are mantle junkies ) . So as of today I don't have a mantle newer than probably 10 years old. Coleman, peerless, american , sunflame a couple others and some no brand. Plastic totes full. When I get back from vacation I plan on purchasing some newer ones and check out the difference.

I am learning older is better but it is expensive too! any thoughts on coarse vs fine silklites? I have comments in another.... thread about the newer peerless - I won't be buying those ever again as theyre inconsistent size-wise as well as burn color. much prefer american mantle or new coleman for daily drivers, silkies for special occasions and jury is out on Sunflames. I pitted a new coleman against an old silklite since my bic lighter melted and shot the flint through the other silklite (stung bad ). figured was a good time to experiment. the old silklite looks yellow but puts a whiter light on full while the yttrium coleman appear to have a reddish hue but it changes on lower brightness... see pics. this is on my 220 with crown fuel. theyew coleman are not half bad IMO. new coleman on left, silklite on right.

IMG_20210403_200803911~2.jpg

IMG_20210403_203040824~3.jpg

IMG_20210403_200758907_HDR~2.jpg

by the way I know she's a little rusty I am planning a full rebuild and fount paint strip/spray. Already got a new decal. I Learned not to use BICs for preheating

[kellyblues]

I am learning older is better but it is expensive too! any thoughts on coarse vs fine silklites? I have comments in another.... thread about the newer peerless - I won't be buying those ever again as theyre inconsistent size-wise as well as burn color. much prefer american mantle or new coleman for daily drivers, silkies for special occasions and jury is out on Sunflames. I pitted a new coleman against an old silklite since my bic lighter melted and shot the flint through the other silklite (stung bad ). figured was a good time to experiment. the old silklite looks yellow but puts a whiter light on full while the yttrium coleman appear to have a reddish hue but it changes on lower brightness... see pics. this is on my 220 with crown fuel. theyew coleman are not half bad IMO. new coleman on left, silklite on right.
IMG_20210403_200803911~2.jpg
IMG_20210403_203040824~3.jpg
IMG_20210403_200758907_HDR~2.jpg
by the way I know she's a little rusty I am planning a full rebuild and fount paint strip/spray. Already got a new decal. I Learned not to use BICs for preheating

Be careful with those semi-automatic matches! They can get ya!
I prefer the fine weave.
This is a bit less than half of what I have to test with. Not including no name ones.

[JimL]

>> I won't be buying those ever again as theyre inconsistent size-wise as well as burn color. much prefer american mantle or new coleman for daily drivers,

Uhhh, aren't American mantle brand mantles just Peerless mantles in different packaging?

I've never seen a red hue like that on a mantle. I kind of like it.

[pagrey]

American Mantle sells Peerless and their own variety. They might be made by the same company but they are very different. American Mantle brand has a very course weave which is different from any Peerless I've ever used. At low brightness the mantles are running very cool and the flow on a double is very strongly influenced by how coarse the weave of the mantle is. I wouldn't consider it useful information at all how two different mantles look on the same double, especially on low.

[sjsjr86s]

I am learning older is better but it is expensive too! any thoughts on coarse vs fine silklites? I have comments in another.... thread about the newer peerless - I won't be buying those ever again as theyre inconsistent size-wise as well as burn color. much prefer american mantle or new coleman for daily drivers, silkies for special occasions and jury is out on Sunflames. I pitted a new coleman against an old silklite since my bic lighter melted and shot the flint through the other silklite (stung bad ). figured was a good time to experiment. the old silklite looks yellow but puts a whiter light on full while the yttrium coleman appear to have a reddish hue but it changes on lower brightness... see pics. this is on my 220 with crown fuel. theyew coleman are not half bad IMO. new coleman on left, silklite on right.
IMG_20210403_200803911~2.jpg
IMG_20210403_203040824~3.jpg
IMG_20210403_200758907_HDR~2.jpg
by the way I know she's a little rusty I am planning a full rebuild and fount paint strip/spray. Already got a new decal. I Learned not to use BICs for preheating

Be careful with those semi-automatic matches! They can get ya!
I prefer the fine weave.
This is a bit less than half of what I have to test with. Not including no name ones.

that looks like a lot of testing fun