I have always loved the smell of lamp oil. My wife loves to have scented oil lamps, but for me, the pure smell of kerosene oil is perfect. It is a smell that reminds me of my childhood and my grandfather. I could wish for no better smell on a late evening as I sit here and look out at the woods.

You see, I used to sit with my grandfather near an ancient oil lamp. It was one of those antique lamps that is in families for generations. It must have been well over a hundred years old, but it looked almost new. He would always burnish the silver of the lamp base, clean the oil lamp chimney, and change the wick whenever it needed it. It was always filled with lamp oil, and it made a clear, bright light.

My mother looked down on that oil lamp. It wasn’t so much the lamp itself, but she was sort of worried that accidents might happen. My grandfather was getting older, and I was just a kid. She knew that, with all that lamp oil around, something bad could go on. Oil candles and lamps, after all, have been known to cause tragedies before. Nonetheless, we were always vigilant with it. You see, we did nothing but stare at it and talk to each other the whole time.

It was sort of the centerpiece of the evenings that we spent together, as a matter of fact. My grandfather loved to tell stories, and having a fire to sit in front of when you are telling stories always makes them better. He would refill the lamp oil, check the wick height, light it up, and start talking immediately. Sometimes, he would tell me true stories about his childhood. I enjoyed those a lot, but they were not my favorite. My favorite stories were the ones that he made up as he went along. I don’t know how he did it, but they were absolutely fantastic. They took place in far-off mystical places, involving creatures, monsters, and heroes that I had never seen. I even half believed him, although on some level I knew that they were just stories.

Nowadays, I use oil lamps less often. My own children are only just getting old enough to hear those kinds of stories – the kinds the last a long time and don’t always make sense. Still, every time I smell lamp oil, it does take me back.

When I was growing up, hurricane lamps were not for decoration. We lived a little bit off the grid, and electricity was sporadic. There were bad storms, and the hurricane lamp was about the only thing that you could depend on. I was pretty amazed by the design at the time, and I still am. Hurricane glass lamps may look simple, but they are an extremely elegant solution. They can keep a fire lit in gale force winds – no small task. For countless lighthouse keepers, fishermen, and all manner of other nautical folks, a hurricane lamp could mean the difference between life and death.

Growing up thinking of hurricane lamps as a pretty rugged type of tool, You can bet that I was surprised seeing hurricane candle holders. I never really associated the design with beauty before. It seemed somehow noble, austere, powerful, but not cute or decorous. Nonetheless, looking at it a second time, I can see that it is. My grandmother loves hurricane candle holders. She loves anything that is made out of glass in organic shapes. She has a pretty drafty house too, so for her hurricane glass candles really do serve a purpose. Normal candles Tend to flicker and smoke in our house, but they don’t when behind a protective cover.

I have actually thought about making my own hurricane lamps. I have been taking some glassblowing classes, and have had a chance to experiment with them. A hurricane lamp is actually a deceptively difficult thing to make. The glass is pretty refined. It has to be completely even or else it will not fit into the base of the lamp. It also has to be very thin or else the light will not penetrate undiluted. I’m not saying that it is the most difficult glassmaking project – far from it – but it does require more experience than I have. Nonetheless, I have been working on it.

The best place to get hurricane lamps is in a fishing town. Nowadays, few people actually use kerosene lamps for anything. They have been completely supplanted except as a means of decoration. Nonetheless, the craft is still alive and well in fishing towns all up and down the East Coast. People keep them in their houses, sometimes for generations. What was once a workhorse tool of the nautical trades is now a rare and valued collector’s piece. I guess that, as handmade things give way to machine-assembled crafts, people get nostalgic for the old days.