As a stylish, functional lighter with a lifetime guarantee Zippos are unparalleled, & the perfect canvas for a miniature one-of-a-kind artpiece.
The designs are worked into the Zippo using engraving & decorative sandblasting techniques. By using different depths of blast and/or engraving techniques a great variety of colouration & effects can be obtained which is very difficult to clearly photograph - many of the designs can only be fully seen by moving the Zippo around causing the light to highlight different parts. Over time & with use the colouration will darken a little.
Each piece is signed P.G.F. - early ones usually PGF in the bottom right corner of the front face, & later ones with it & the year it was done to the right of the Zippo logo on the bottom stamp. Pieces worked since 2005 have a tiny "No 1 of 1" on the bottom of the face opposite the hinge (although some have it in other areas depending on the design.) Since 2009 each piece has been specially coded & detailed records kept.
In 2003 I began communicating with Zippo for official acceptance of my work as a "Zippo recognised artist". Whilst anyone can purchase a Zippo & do whatever they want upon it, from a legal standpoint it cannot be then sold as a without Zippo's permission. I was honoured with a verbal acceptance by Mr Mike Martin, Zippo's Vice President of Sales & Marketing, on condition that each piece is strictly a "one-of-a-kind" & that photos of each piece are filed with Zippo. This resulted in being allowed to exhibit work at the 2004 Zippo/Case Swapmeet , 2006 Zippo/Case Swapmeet & 2007 Zippo 75th anniversary meeting held in late July in Bradford, PA, USA - the home of Zippo & Case. Many pieces found new homes with Zippo staff & passionate collectors.
About 1992 a good friend gave me my first Zippo - a 1991 Operation Deep Freeze Slim Scrimshaw Zippo - on his return from Antarctica. It was lovingly used & later became the first Zippo that I hand worked with a double-sided artpiece of mine - I had decided that I wasn't happy having a Zippo that there was more thanone of & so it became the start of a love affair of producing only one-of-a-kind designs on Zippos. After much more use & admiration from other Zippo lovers it's now retired & takes pride of place in my personal collection.
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Since then my everyday lighter has been a 1996 Original 1932 Replica, 2nd Release (love that shape!) with another design & my motto "In all things be passionate" in miniscule letters.
Pieces are available direct through this website (here) or our shop. The number of Zippos done in any one year is not very high as each design is worked entirely by myself. There is a 3 - 6 month wait on custom designs done to order.
Pricing is based upon time involved & cost of the Zippo - a single piece can take between 2 & 30 hours depending on the complexity of the design.
Some past Zippos I have worked can also be found in the Past works section
In late 2005 an article on my work was published in the ZippoClick (Zippo's official collector's club) magazine, Vol. 3, 2005
About Paul's one-of-a-kind Zippos
Click on flag for
newspaper article in Chinese
One of a kind for sale
