lamp oil

[Neil2]

There was a thread some time ago on oil lamps and I'm sure someone posted a link to a supplier of oil. I was sure I bookmarked it but I can't find it now. I've recently acquired a lamp and don't want to burn paraffin - can anyone help?

[magnetman]

I recently electrified an oil miners lamp (its ok it wasn't a 'real' original one )

Get 3 subminiature 12v filament bulbs from maplin or eBay. tape them together then place where the wick was and lead a thin 2 core wire via a switch from the 12v supply.

 

A very realistic looking oil lamp without the bother or smell or fire risk.

 

 

I realise you may not want to do this but saw it as an opportunity to describe my setup

[magnetman]

 

ISTR you can add castor oil or possibly rose(??) oil to paraffin to get rid of the smell. I think B&Q or home base did an additive which had same effect.

[David Schweizer]

There was a thread some time ago on oil lamps and I'm sure someone posted a link to a supplier of oil. I was sure I bookmarked it but I can't find it now. I've recently acquired a lamp and don't want to burn paraffin - can anyone help?

 

Why do you not wish to use paraffin? I have been restoring and using Oil lamps in my home for thirty years or more, and only use paraffion, If a lamp wick is trimmed correctly, and the correct chimney is used it should not smoke or leave any significant smells when extinguished.

 

Lamp Oil is basicly the same stuff as paraffin, it may have been refined a little more to reduce smoking, but don't count on it. The main difference is that it will have had a different perfume added and is available in a range of fancy colours. It can be purchased from Argos or places like Homebase but it is about four times as expensive as paraffin, clear lamp oil can be obtained fromn these people:- http://www.clearcraftoilcandles.co.uk/lamp-oil-oil-dye/clear-lamp-oil.html

Edited July 17, 2015 by David Schweizer

[magnetman]

My electric lamp

 

I don't advocate doing this with a proper old original oil lamp by the way

 

Edit to fiddle with picture

Edited July 17, 2015 by magnetman

[The Bagdad Boatman (waits)]

There is a difference between Kerosene annd lamp parafin ( Esso blue and aladin pink) lamp oil is more refined than kerosene and will not smell.

[Theo]

When I was an apprentice in the Merchant Navy we used to use Colza Oil. I have just looked it up in Wikipedia and have discovered this:

Colza oil is a nondrying oil obtained from the seeds of Brassica napus subsp. napus.[1] (syn. Brassica napus var. oleifera Delile, Brassica campestris subsp. napus (L.) Hook.f. & T.Anderson,...)[2] Colza is extensively cultivated in France, Belgium, the United States, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland. In France, especially, the extraction of the oil is an important industry. In commerce, colza is a traditional rapeseed oil (with turnip rape oil, sarson oil, toria oil (Brassica rapa ssp.), and ravison oil),[3] to which they are very closely allied in both source and properties. It is a comparatively nonodoriferous oil of a yellow colour, having a specific gravity varying between 0.912 and 0.920. The cake left after extraction of the oil is a valuable feed ingredient for pigs.

I wonder if you could use rapeseed oil from the supermarket

Edited July 17, 2015 by Theo

[David Schweizer]

There is a difference between Kerosene annd lamp parafin ( Esso blue and aladin pink) lamp oil is more refined than kerosene and will not smell.

 

That statement requires some expansion. Kerosene is the term used in the US for what we in the UK call Paraffin. However, in the UK Kerosene is a slghtly less refined form of paraffin and is used for domestic heating etc.

 

Paraffin is more refined and has a distimctive perfume added to it whuch we all recognise as the typical paraffin smell, it ialso uased to be du0pyed different colours by the refiners to distinguish it from competitor;s products - Aladdin-Pink, Esso-Blue, and my favourite Fina-Green. today some anonymous brands are dyed yellow whilst others are purple,

 

Lamp oil is a but more difficult to quantify, at it simplest it is merely a highly dyed paraffin, at it's most complex it is a more refined version of paraffin sometimes with other mineral oils and waxes added to "improve" burning.

 

Can you use UK Kerosene in an oil lamp? the simple answer is yes but performance may well be affected and it will probaly smoke and smell.

[Neil2]

My understanding is there's a difference between the "petrol station" paraffin that we used in the lamp in the outside toilet in the winter, and lamp oil (which I've also heard described as "paraffin oil" just to confuse matters).

 

The thread to which I referred IIRC contained a long debate about this, and my personal conclusion was that there is a chemical difference between the two ie lamp oil is not just paraffin with some scent added.

 

The lamp currently has paraffin in it and the smell is unacceptable in a "living" room.

 

The supplier David provided a link to might be the one I recall.

[David Schweizer]

When I was an apprentice in the Merchant Navy we used to use Colza Oil. I have just looked it up in Wikipedia and have discovered this:

 

I wonder if you could use rapeseed oil from the supermarket

 

Colza Oil predates Paraffin, but being more viscous, requires to either be force fed to the wick or fed by gravity. It's use fell out of poularity during the second half of the 19th century when the far more superior Paraffin oil became more widely available, although the railway companies continued to use Colza for many years, after it's popularity for domestic use had subsided.

 

I would not counsell using rape seed (or any other unrefined vegetable) oil in an oil lamp, at best it will produce a poor light, at worst it will just gum up the lamp.

[Alan Saunders]

Why do you not wish to use paraffin? I have been restoring and using Oil lamps in my home for thirty years or more, and only use paraffion, If a lamp wick is trimmed correctly, and the correct chimney is used it should not smoke or leave any significant smells when extinguished.

 

Lamp Oil is basicly the same stuff as paraffin, it may have been refined a little more to reduce smoking, but don't count on it. The main difference is that it will have had a different perfume added and is available in a range of fancy colours. It can be purchased from Argos or places like Homebase but it is about four times as expensive as paraffin, clear lamp oil can be obtained fromn these people:- http://www.clearcraftoilcandles.co.uk/lamp-oil-oil-dye/clear-lamp-oil.html

+1 greenie! Even refined, scented 'Lamp Oil' will stink if you do not correctly trim the wick and adjust the flame. 'Aladdin Pink' and 'Esso Blue' are no longer competing for 'odourless' paraffin sales, mostly for heating the home or greenhouse, current products are just as good.

 

There is a Murco garage not too far from me, Lurgashall Wiltshire, that supplies both kerosene and paraffin in bulk, there must be a supplier near to the OP. I forget the exact price but I believe it is no more than 70p/litre. The DIY and garage outlets typically have 4 litre containers of paraffin for ~£7 = £1.75 per litre.

 

Alan

[David Schweizer]

My understanding is there's a difference between the "petrol station" paraffin that we used in the lamp in the outside toilet in the winter, and lamp oil (which I've also heard described as "paraffin oil" just to confuse matters).

 

The thread to which I referred IIRC contained a long debate about this, and my personal conclusion was that there is a chemical difference between the two ie lamp oil is not just paraffin with some scent added.

 

The lamp currently has paraffin in it and the smell is unacceptable in a "living" room.

 

The supplier David provided a link to might be the one I recall.

 

If the lamp smells when in use, the most likely cause is that Paraffin is either old, or the lamp wick is not trimmed correctly, As I have already stated, we regularly use oil lamps at home and they do not smell whilst alight. If there is a residual smell after the lamp has been extuinguished, try lighting a candle for a few minutes, burning one should consume any residual paraffin odour.

[David Schweizer]

+1 greenie! Even refined, scented 'Lamp Oil' will stink if you do not correctly trim the wick and adjust the flame. 'Aladdin Pink' and 'Esso Blue' are no longer competing for 'odourless' paraffin sales, mostly for heating the home or greenhouse, current products are just as good.

 

There is a Murco garage not too far from me, Lurgashall Wiltshire, that supplies both kerosene and paraffin in bulk, there must be a supplier near to the OP. I forget the exact price but I believe it is no more than 70p/litre. The DIY and garage outlets typically have 4 litre containers of paraffin for ~£7 = £1.75 per litre.

 

Alan

 

Kerosene in the UK is classed as a heating oil and is taxed at a much lower rate than Paraffin which is classed as a light oil. As far as i know the respective tax rates are something like 11p per litre for Kerosene, and 68p per litre for Paraffin. It doesn't explain more than a £1 per litre difference but goes a long way

Edited July 17, 2015 by David Schweizer

[Bobbybass]

Don't forget...if you use oil fired lamps as navigation lights.....

......you'll need to ask for red...and green oil.

[bizzard]

A friend of mine here used to own an old fashioned hardware shop, or oil shop as some folk called them. It had the usual 'at the time' big paraffin tank inside with the measures and oil stained wooden floor around it, and apparently when the tanker came to fill the tank the driver would ask my friend what make of paraffin he wanted. ''Esso blue, Alladin pink ect or just plain clear from the tanker. He would then just add the appropriate colour dye to the clear paraffin there and then to my friend's instruction. Most folk swore by one make or another in those days and several of his customers would only buy it from him if he happened to have their favorite in the tank. He did think about having two or three tanks installed, all with the different coloured paraffin in them, and of course labeled accordingly. I expect all this was dodgy dealing and really against the law, but I think it was a pretty common practice.