Recently, Truett Smith and I sat down to chat about some of the most important accessories that you need as a smoker, starting with two of the most well-known heritage brands that offer humble soft-flame lighters: S.T. Dupont and Dunhill.

High-Quality Heirloom Lighters

[Shane Ireland]: I think these specific items are absolutely heirloom items. As a smoker myself, once I started getting into this and I wanted a nice, soft-flame lighter to accompany my pipes, one of the first things I did was get my hands on a vintage Dunhill, and I've been in love with the design and the quality of both Dunhill and S.T. Dupont since then. If you've ever had a chance to research some of the vintage lighters that both of these companies produced, you'll see incredible craftsmanship, design, and so many cool things that they did over the years.

[Truett Smith]: To define our terms, what we mean by heirloom is that these probably aren't the lighters you want to carry everyday.

[SI]: It's definitely a quality item that will last forever and that you can pass down, if you really want to. It's as fine of a quality as such accessories get.

[TS]: Yeah, this is the top of the line. This is the nicest that you're gonna be able to get anywhere.

[SI]: Absolutely. There's a wide range of lighters, both available from Dunhill and S.T. Dupont, but today we wanted to talk about two of the most famous Dunhill designs and the most famous S.T. Dupont design for soft-flame lighters for pipe and cigar smoking.

[TS]: There's a lot of heritage brands out there in pipes, other accessories, and in other industries whose quality has not held up over years in modern production. One thing that strikes me about these brands is that these hold up exactly the same as production was many years ago. They've maintained their quality and design.

[SI]: Yeah, and I have no preference between my vintage Dupont and my vintage Dunhill lighters. For me, it's more about collecting certain designs and having fun with it. I find them to be just as reliable and the build quality and everything else is unchanged.

[TS]: I also wanna point out that we're highlighting Dunhill as an English brand and then S.T. Dupont as a French brand. Two countries in the industry that have been well known for quality materials and products from a hundred years ago to now.

Let's start with S.T. Dupont.

S.T. Dupont Ligne 2 Lighter

[TS]: The Ligne 2 is my everyday carry line. It's dinged up, I use it. It's the nicest lighter I have, but I want to use it. I've dropped it and it's got scratches on it, but that's part of the character. I bought this for myself for my 30th birthday. Nikolaj Nielsen, the owner of Danish Pipe Shop, who is a friend of ours, pulled out a Dupont one time. It's the exact same one. It's Black Lacquer with Palladium. And I was like, oh, no way. And I pulled out mine. I was like, I have the same one. His dad bought it for him for his 30th birthday and it's engraved. What's cool about his is that the edges are rounded because he's used it so much.

[SI]: We've gotta talk about the ping. Anybody that knows anything about Dupont knows that, especially the Ligne 2 design, is famous for the ping. Now, of course, not all of them have what is referred to as the "perfect" ping. A lot of it has to do with the material. So if you have lacquer on the lid of the lighter, for example, you're not gonna have quite as resonant or high pitched of a ping, and there is some difference between them, but that is a signature of the brand and it's very satisfying.

Honestly, if you're a smoker and if you're a Dupont user, you can be out in public and you can hear when somebody opens it to light.

[TS]: Yeah, and we've got a range of various Ligne 2s, some with the perfect ping, some without.

S.T. Dupont Collectible Lighters

[TS]: Dupont does a very good job of bridging the gap between ultra traditional and super modern. We have a Game of Thrones collaborative lighter with Dupont here, and obviously it doesn't get much more modern than a TV show or something like that.

[SI]: They've got the DC comic series, the newly released collaboration with Fender Guitars, and the Le Mans limited edition years ago. There's all kinds of limited editions, and the craftsmanship and the design work on every single one of 'em is honestly stunning. We get to see a lot of these in photos and in cases at the trade show. Every time we actually get our hands on 'em and I look at them in person, it's like, oh my God. It's just such a well-made and well-designed lighter.

[TS]: Some of their presentation cases are next level, out of this world as well. This looks like how it existed in 1930, 1940, or whatever. It's really cool to see a brand that's well over a hundred years old playing both ends of the spectrum of the super modern, almost fun and playful, and then the ultra traditional here.

[SI]: There's basically something for everybody, and they're also very highly collectible for that reason too. There's a lot of limited editions. The Casa Blanca has a gorgeous mosaic pattern.

[TS]: Yeah, you and I both had our eyes on that one.

[SI]: S.T. Dupont has all kinds of designs, all with the same quality. They're very substantial in the hand. These are a little wider than some other lighter models on the market but it's still very easy in a pocket. I mean, you carry yours every day.

[TS]: Yeah, it fits in a pocket, but also more conveniently fits in your coin pocket if you're wearing five-pocket jeans or something like that.

[SI]: And they just have a good feel in the hand. The operation of 'em is great. I really enjoy it. Even as a cigar smoker, I tend to favor a soft flame, personally, and I use my Ligne 2 more often than not when smoking at home.

[TS]: On that note, for you cigar smokers out there, they are a soft flame, but they are a double flame so it is a more robust flame than your typical soft-flame lighter.

[SI]: I mean, the advantage of a torch flame is being able to light still in a slightly windy condition but if you mostly smoke inside or if wind isn't a problem for you, I do tend to prefer the result of slowly lighting a cigar with a soft flame.

[TS]: Yeah. So that's Dupont. We have more selections on the website.

Dunhill Collectible Lighters

[TS]: Let's move on to Dunhill, a brand that every pipe smoker probably knows a good bit about.

[SI]: One revival design that's really vintage, interesting, and fun is the Disco Ball, designed to be a table lighter. When I say that this is substantial, I mean, this is a couple pounds. You can see that this is something you can actually just take, travel with, walk around with in your pocket, and then keep it handy in the holder at home or in your smoking area. But this whimsical design, the Disco Ball, is one of the specialized designs that we've seen revived from Dunhill in the last couple years.

Another example would be the Aquarium series, which was very famous back in the day, and they just recently released one or two editions for the first time in decades. I have had the fortune of seeing some of the old designs that they keep for archival purposes in their museum. You would not believe the innovation, creativity, whimsy, and the function of some of the lighters that they've designed over the years. There's actually a book about it, if you have a chance to pick it up, where you can look at all of these table clocks that are lighters, mosaics, travel cases that hold both cigarettes and is a lighter, the Rollagas, the big yardstick, the disco ball, the various aquarium lighters, and so on. They made so many interesting and innovative designs.

[TS]: They're just having fun with it.

[SI]: They're highly collectible and valuable when you find them on the vintage market these days.

Dunhill Rollagas & Unique Lighters

[TS]: Dunhill has two main, iconic, soft-flame series, and Shane mentioned the Rollagas, which are these slender, side-striking ones, and then you have the ever iconic Unique, which has been copied by numerous other brands. It's a staple design and instruction, particularly in pipe lighters.

[SI]: The Rollagas is a more compact, slimmer version. It's still square, or rectangular in shape, with the side striker here, and it has a pretty capacious fluid capacity. I have a couple of these and I was sort of surprised how deceptively long lasting they were. It's just a different aesthetic. I tend to think of the Rollagas as my dressier Dunhill option, and I've carried a Unique for many years as my EDC.

[TS]: There's similarities between the Dupont Ligne 2 and the Rollagas from Dunhill. The functionally, operation, and aesthetic of the lighters are very similar. The Unique, for those who don't know, is opened by simply popping up the lever and then you'll the wheel, and you can adjust it to remove the flint. It's super handy.

[SI]: My favorite part about the Unique is how easy it is to adjust, refill, and replace the flint. None of these other ones are quite that difficult, but I probably wouldn't be doing any of that maintenance on the go. With the Unique, though, if I find myself traveling and I have extra flints in my bag, it only takes a few seconds to replace 'em.

[TS]: Yeah, that's a really good point. Another feather in the cap of a Unique for EDC carry is that parts of it aren't fully contained, whereas with something like the Rollagas, I've never done service on it, but you've gotta take it apart to do a lot.

[SI]: Yeah, even changing the flint is relatively easy, but like I said, you don't wanna do it on the go, probably.

[TS]: I really can't recommend the Unique or a similarly styled Old Boy-type of a lighter enough.

[SI]: Adjusting the flame, refilling it, changing the flint, and the operation are all easy. I also find it satisfying to have that cap. Due to the rounded edges and the cap, I do feel like ergonomically and especially in the pocket, the Unique is very handy. I tend to think of Ligne 2 as something that I am carrying in a bag with other accessories and then pulling out when I'm having special time to smoke while relaxing in a cigar lounge or wherever.

I do carry the Rollagas in my pocket every once in a while but mostly I collect the Rollagas, and I end up using my Uniques, and it's because they are the best design for a soft-flame lighter that I think has ever been created, in my personal opinion. There's a lot of different designs and there's like a good degree of collectibility as well, but when you're talking about function, but you want the quality of an heirloom brand, the Unique is hard to beat.

Lighters to Enhance Your Smokes

[TS]: Yep, I absolutely agree, and most pipe smokers will probably agree with me on this too; we like the tactile aspect of the hobby. We like fiddling with things, we like the process, and this is maybe a small thing, but it's significant, in my opinion, that these lighters all share that feature of lifting the cap and striking the wheel. There's kind of a tactile thing and a little bit of a ritual to it. That really hits home for me and fits in with the pipe-smoking hobby, in general.

[SI]: Also, we kind of hinted at this in the beginning, but you can smoke a pipe with a big lighter, you can smoke a pipe with matches, like there's so many lighters on the market that are perfectly functional and well made, but there's something about these designs that have allowed them to stand the test of time.

There's satisfaction in using the best accessories to enhance your experience as a smoker that is just hard to beat. I've said this before in the past when I've been asked about a hand-cut stem versus a pre-molded stem. It's almost impossible to explain to somebody the difference. You just have to try it. And once you do try it, it's like, oh, that's nice. And I feel the same way about these heirloom lighters. The first time that I got my hands on one, cleaned it up, filled it up with fuel, and started using it, I was just like, this is it. This is enhancing my experience to a great degree.

[TS]: We're not gonna go as far as to say your tobacco's going to taste better using these lighters. It's nothing like that. Whatever lighting method you prefer that works for you is totally fine. But what you said is true: There is something special about these lighters when, if you're interested in something special, if you're trying to commemorate a special occasion, or if you're thinking about things to pass on to children, collection-type stuff, this is it.

Check out Smokingpipes for our accessories, specifically S.T. Dupont and Dunhill in our lighter section.

[SI]: We have a wide selection of both.

[TS]: This is just a drop in the bucket of what we have available. They're always coming out with new stuff and this is the cream of the crop.

[SI]: Thanks so much, guys.