Intro:
This is not a complete MYOG project yet. I've been looking into this after Zelph (http://www.woodgaz-stove.com/) made a post on catalytic cigarette lighters over at bpl. I thought I'd share what I have done and see if anyone here has any musings or thoughts.

Background:
Catalytic cigarette lighters were made 50 years or so ago and many are still in working condition. They use platinum to auto-ignite methanol. The methanol flame is then used to light the cigarette. Alcohol stove users know methanol as "HEET" that comes in the little yellow bottle at Autoparts stores. My idea is to make something that alcohol stove users who are burning "HEET" could use to quickly ignite there stoves with no moving parts, is fairly robust and very lightweight.

Links/additional info:
The original bpl thread: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/...thread_id=72580

Video of a lighter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vGYUSw-azQ

How catalytic lighters work: http://www.toledo-bend.com/VCL/articles/index.asp?request=catalytic

A neat catalytic platinum/methanol experiment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSdBB1vBDKY

In my next post I will describe what I have done so far.