Post #376552 by TorchGuy on Sun, Apr 27, 2008 4:26 AM

Here's my collection, assembled for the shot. Not everything is shown.

-- Two large Tiki Torches, dating to the 60s or 70s, brass anodized with matching pole. They came in a beautiful box, have the snuff caps (but no chain) and have only the three sections of pole shown, one of them rusty.

-- Five Tonga Torches by Tiki - four black (three complete with snuffer caps and chains) and one gold torch with wick. These were bought new by me in the 90s. I have most of the pole sections for the black ones - four sections shown. Each torch had four sections.

-- One Owl Lite on its display card, unused, with wick. There were six different faces available: Mine is cross-eyed; the others were slanted eyes ("Oriental" I assume) plus-sign pupils (drunk?) half-closed (sleepy or crafty?) right-looking (shifty) and normal. Also available were ground stakes and tree or eave type hooks for these.

-- Two Tahiti Torch type units, one shown, in unfinished aluminum.

-- One woven Tiki size wick. It is HUGE, as you can see.

The two big brass Tiki sized torches, and possibly the Tahitis, will be outfitted with electric lights. The Tongas, and any other torches I can grab (green or white...?) will be retrofitted with small canisters with cotton wicks, for use with colored flame oil, thus not damaging the torches or getting them charred and blackened. PVC pipes will be sunk in concrete blocks at the proper slope, and when in use (and only then) the torches will be brought out and placed into the PVC bases. Mr. Owl Lite will simply sit on my picnic table and look pretty, possibly fitted with a flickering yellow LED tealight flame.

In June, I'll have a budget again, though very small, and I'll be seeking out complete torch heads, with or without chains and/or caps. I have these five... The black ones will be used in crossed pairs, and the brass (and, if the Tiki board member is open to selling the green and/or white Tongas) those as well will be singles. If I DO get white and green, I may hunt for a third colored enamel Tonga and do a trio grouping. I saw and loved the double and triple clusters of gas torches in Kona. I may also have a lead on a few more pairs of brass ones, not certain yet...

My garden isn't planned as a Poly place per se, though I would like to find (locally) a small wooden tiki to put in a corner, kind of hidden, for guests to "discover" as they wander. It'll be more of a Pacific Northwest/Pacific Rim 60s look: dark wood narrow vertical-pole screen fence, small Japanese maples (shrub sized) tiki torches, a small sculptural fountain, lots of little lights (I have one of the fiberglass rocks with a hole in one end to hide a spotlight that were big here in the 60s) etc.