Information about Stick Lighters

GENERAL INFO

Tsubota Pearl was founded in 1952 in Tokyo, Japan as a manufacturer of leather and metal goods related to the smoking industry. The company has specialized in cigarette cases, metal-plated lighters and other accessories for nearly 70 years.

All lighters shipped from LCD are empty of lighter fluid. This is due to shipping regulations (and for everyone's safety!). You can fill your Tsubota Pearl lighters with most any brand of lighter fluid, but we do recommend the Zippo brand lighter fluid.

Lighter Fluid

Filling your Tsubota Pearl lighter with lighter fluid is very simple. You can use a screwdriver to open the screw at the base of the lighter, remove or open the top cap (to allow excess fluid to escape safely), and then fill slowly from the base of the lighter. If visual aids are your thing, here is a video:

You can buy Zippo brand lighter fluid on Amazon or at your local hardware or grocery store.

MAINTENANCE & TROUBLESHOOTING

If your Queue or Sigaretta Lighter is not having trouble lighting, it may be time for you to perform a bit of maintenance on your piece!

The Wick

Your Tsubota Pearl lighter features a long single wick that should take a while to get used up completely, as it extends into the lighter tank (which more or less runs the length of the lighter). "New" segments can be pulled out with pliers when the wick gets too frayed or burnt. Please note this should be done before the visible tip of the wick gets too short!

Please see the following instructional video from Tsubota Pearl about how to maintain your lighter's wick.

The Flint

The flint is a combustible material inside your lighter that creates a spark to light your lighter. Like with all lighters, flints do wear down over time. If you're noticing that your lighter doesn't generate a spark every time you strike it, you should consider replacing your flint (generally once it reaches about 1/3 of its original size).

To remove and replace leftover flint: remove the wheel unit by pulling it straight out. NEVER twist when pulling out the unit.

Diagram of the Tsubota Pearl Queue stick lighter and its parts.

If your flint is run down, throw away your old flint and replace it with a new one. Do not use more than 1 flint at a time! Also: make sure that the screw at the bottom of the flint-assembly is tightly closed to ensure a tight fit on all the internal parts. This enables the flint-spring to maximize power when pushing the flint against the flint-wheel. Once you have completed replacement and made sure that the flint-assembly cap is tight, place the flint assembly unit back into the lighter. Make sure the red dot on the wheel-unit faces outwards (as shown in the below photo).

Photo of Tsubota Pearl Queue Stick Lighter indicating how to align the flint.

You can buy replacement flint on Amazon.

To watch a video of a Tsubota Pearl Hard Edge lighter's flint being replaced (the mechanism is not exactly the same, but it's helpful to get a sense of how easy this is!), you can watch this video.

If you want to have a full lighter maintenance kit, you can buy the combo Zippo kit on Amazon as well.