I was messing around in the garage today. Service kit on a push mower. Honestly, the first time out of hundreds of small engines I’ve worked on and it was a bad spark plug. Anywho, I was putting everything back in place and saw my old Coleman lantern sitting on the shelf. Knocked the dust off of it, little oil in the primer, and a couple of pumps…… 
Called my son to come check it out and his mind was blown. No batteries or Bluetooth?? It’s the simple things in life the last the longest, son. 
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Stock up on those mantles! I forgot how cool those old lanterns really are.
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Got a couple bags of them. Apparently, I was smart enough to put the lantern on top of them. Surprised me as well. 
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I’m not a lantern buff, but some of the guys at the office are. For my Dad’s 70th birthday I found a lantern made the in the year he was in Vietnam and had one of the guys source a 173’d Airborne decal to make it special.
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Those things are like turning on the sun when they are at full blast, never realized how bright they were until messing with one a week or two ago. Gotta grab one myself.
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I’m pretty sure I still have one or two laying around here somewhere.
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Be super careful. I lit both hands on fire last year when I went to pump my old Peak 1 stove after getting it lit. The rubber gasket must have rotted out, b/c after pumping and tightening as soon as I took my thumb off the pump it started shooting fuel on me. All I can say is those Walgreens burn pads are magic! Stay safe!!
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It definitely needs to be mentioned that if these things sit around too long, a complete service should be done before attempting to put a match to it. I ran into your same situation with a used MSR Wisperlite years ago. Luckily, I didn’t get burned but having a flaming ball of white gas puckered me up real quick.
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Seeing this sort of thing is always a Gen X moment. Brings back those memories of camping as a kid. Having that lantern “with mantles” was solid gold bc most flashlights sucked and decent batteries for them might as well have been unobtainium. Somehow someones dad always had one. Thanks for sharing.
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Reminds me of night fishing for crappie. We had a metal pole attached to the boat that would hold the lantern away from the boat. The lantern had a shield around the side facing the boat so it wouldn’t blind us. The light attracted bugs away from the boat and into the water. We have hung the lantern from a bridge or limb hanging over the water, then back off a ways and cast to it.
And enough can’t be said about rebuilding or servicing every part of a lantern after it has been sitting a while. The main valve WILL LEAK around the stem. Ask me how I know this.
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I remember those days fondly. Night fishing on the pontoon, lantern burning, and a bucket of minnows. Maybe some contraband adult sodas. 
Sshhh! I wasn’t going to mention what happens when the fish aren’t biting.
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I laughed when I saw your opening post anout fixing the push mower and the issue being the spark plug. After about 15 years of neglect and abuse, I decided last week to fix my little troybilt 130 that was onnits last legs.
Cleaned the carb, did everything I could think of - darned thing wouldnt run properly. Finally decided to change the spark plug, in spite of 10,000 you tubers saying that spark plug was the least likely culprit. In fairness, the condition of the carb was so bad it SHOULD have been the problem
Yup, it was the spark plug. Coincindence or something in the NC air?
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Gotta be something in the NC air. I was telling my cohort in the office about it (ex GC Superintendent as well). He just looked at me and said BS . He couldn’t believe it. I’ve cleaned and re-gapped 30-40 year old plugs and they run just fine when I’d slap them back in. This thing would run for 10-15 seconds then just die. I thought for sure it was a fuel issue. Pulled and cleaned the carb same issue. Ordered up a carb kit for $15 slapped the new carb on, installed an in-line filter, and new air filter. Same issue. Finally I said, f’ it let’s put this new plug in as well. Running like a top now. First time for everything I guess.
That is 100% what was going on with mine. I did clean and regap the old spark plug, btw and got the same 15 second perfect purr, it died like it had before.
In fairness, I run that thing through hell and the filter is original - cleaned put periodically but definitely clogged and causing the mower to run rich - as evidenced by the blackened plug. The fact that this mower still runs after all these years inspite of the abuse and neglect is a tribute to Honda. Might even give it its first oil change since I bought it to go with the new air filter, fuel filter, cleaned out carb and resharpened blade.
Will probably blow up right afterwards and I would deserve it.
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I remember Gigging with my Father inlaw he use the same Coleman lantern 
and we gigged plenty of flounder
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WOW a fun memory….
Back in the 70’s we used to shrimp in Biscayne Bay….we’d cut a hole in a metal garbage can lid and attach it to the top of the lamp…..hang over the wall at the haulover inlet on a metal pole a few feet from the wall and some Rolling Stones and you were shrimping all night with a big net 
dc
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Long story here, but my father was (technically still is) a pretty serious collector of Coleman lanterns, lamps, stoves, irons, and other oddities. I spent my formative years tagging along to garage sales with my folks, and Dad would regularly buy broken Coleman products for a song. We had a deep reservoir of replacement parts, and fixing them up for resale eventually became my job. That was back before the big box sporting good stores pushed out the independents, and we made weekly resupply runs to a number of different small hardware and sporting good stores who sold our refurbished lanterns alongside their new stock.
It was a great gig for a youngster who liked to set things on fire and also enjoyed fixing broken stuff. I probably discovered most of the non-deadly ways to make a Coleman product malfunction before age 16, and it’s a wonder that I escaped with only a few scars and managed to put out the unscheduled burns before they got serious.
On the flipside, all of that was 30+ years ago, and it seems like Dad has continued to buy Coleman stuff but hasn’t fixed or sold anything in a couple decades. One of these days I’ll be spending MONTHS cleaning out his stash, and I’ve already started tracking down collectors and museums that might appreciate a few donations…possibly a few dozen donations.
Just a tiny taste of the treasure…
The last time I counted was before the pandemic, and he had 56 lanterns and 27 lamps in his office. I’m guessing that we’ll easily hit triple digits in each category after I start unpacking the garage and storage building. Yay, I think?
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Son and I took an old lantern and took the guts out, installed a regular light socket, got a “flame” bulb…..sprayed some “frost” spraypaint on inside of the glass. Gave it to my wife as a present. Pretty cool looking replica with no fire!
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Your comment about your dad and you fixing the lanterns for resale brings the entire thread back together - fixing these old lanterns is a lot like having the willingness and skill to deal with old 2 cycle lawn equipment. So many people will toss out a mower, weedeater, or blower because it won’t start - but with a little basic knowhow and 30 minutes, most of that equipment can be cleaned up and re-sold in perfect working condition.
One of the ‘Tube videos I watched made an accurate claim - “If you know how to clean a carburetor, you get free lawn equipment for life.” - probably the same with camping equipment!
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