Buying Smith Little Torch

Smith Little Torch seems to be hugely popular with many jewelers nowadays. Due to COVID pandemic I didn’t have a chance to test it out at another jeweler’s studio so I decided to get a used one for myself and give it a try. If you are also looking for one maybe you can benefit from some of the research I did and mistakes I made 🙂

Watch out for counterfeits

First – if you are buying a new one, buy it from a reputable seller like Ottofrei, Riogrande, Cyberweld etc. There is a huge number of counterfeits being sold on the internet – especially on eBay. These counterfeits can be very hard to distinguish from the real thing as the packaging looks basically the same as the original one but the torches are said to be of a lesser quality, both torches and hoses tend to develop leaks soon and at times can be downright dangerous to use.

This is a counterfeit somebody is trying to sell on eBay for $129.95

Tell tale signs of the counterfeit torches:

Counterfeits can be really cheap – though not always – a real Smith little torch kit with 5 tips costs about $140+ new. You can find the counterfeits new for as cheap as $30 on eBay or Aliexpress.
Counterfeits are often shipped from outside the USA. Again there are exceptions, especially with the more expensive counterfeits like the picture above – somebody could have bought a bunch of cheap torches from China to try to sell them for a large profit in the USA or it can be someone who realized they accidentally bought a counterfeit and are trying to get rid of it.
Counterfeits often have blue oxygen knob instead of green. This might be hard to tell from the marketing pictures as sometimes the torch is pictured so that only the red knob is visible or the picture is color corrected so it’s hard to tell if it’s blue or green. Often though if you click through all the pictures there will be one showing a blue knob.
Oxygen knob (green/blue) should be on the right side and fuel (red) knob should be on the left. On counterfeits these are sometimes reversed.
The oxygen and gas knobs on the real Smith torch have spiral texture on them. The counterfeits often have vertical lines or a different type of texture.
The body of the original torches have “Smith Equipment“ and a body type number embossed on it (note that some really old torches can have Tescom Corporation written on it – Smith Equipment used to be a division of Tescom Corporation and now is owned by Miller Electric). The counterfeits can be missing this labeling completely.

Note on fuel and fitting types

You can run the little torch with a variety of gases – for example acetylene, hydrogen, propane, natural gas. One thing to know is that the smallest tips – #1 and #2 – can only be used with acetylene and hydrogen so if you are planning on using a different type make sure you are getting the right kit so you don’t pay for tips #1 and #2 needlessly. Similarly the hose for the little torch is available with different fittings for different countries. For the USA you should look for the B style fittings.

Buying a used torch

Hopefully you purchased your torch from a reliable seller new but if you are like me looking for a used one let’s talk about what to check for after you did your best to establish it’s a real Smith torch.

Some things to check on older torches:

LEAKS. Even the best equipment can start malfunctioning with enough wear and tear or mishandling. There are a bunch of parts to check for leaks.
- fittings – check any connections between the tanks, regulators, flashback arrestors, hoses and the torch itself for leaks – you can do that using a special leak detection solution or using a bit of dishwashing liquid in water. There are a lot of videos on youtube showing you how to do that.
- hoses – check that there is no break in the hoses. You can do that by sliding sections of a hose through a container with water and checking for bubbles escaping from the hose. Remember to make sure the hoses are pressurized – your regulator is open and the corresponding valve on the torch is closed.
- torch body – submerge the whole torch body under water. Again make sure there is a gas feeding into it. Test both with the valves completely closed and partially open. The only place any gas bubbles should be escaping from is the tip if the knobs/valves are open. If you get any bubbles escaping from the tip – or even worse around the valves – you have a problem. Replacing the valves can be pretty expensive – about $36 for each one.
- summary – if you find any problem with the torch, unless you know yourself how to fix it, it might be better to pass on the used one and just buy a new one. Both valve and hose replacements are expensive plus you never know what other issue there might be.
Replacement parts – there have been many models of the Smith Little Torch body designs over the years. Find out what exact body type the torch is (e.g. 23-1001c, 11-1101b,..) and check with Smith/Miller that they still carry replacement parts.
Acetylene, hydrogen vs other fuel – if what you are looking to buy is a kit that includes tips understand that some of the tips can only be used with acetylene or hydrogen – specifically tips #1 and #2. If you are looking to use propane or natural gas you don’t need these tips so you probably don’t want to pay for them extra.
How old is the torch? How much was it used? When was it used last? Even though these torches seem to be of a really good quality and last a long time as with any tool the older it is, the more use and abuse it gets, the more likely it is that soon something will need to be replaced.

The pictures of the leaking torch came from the used torch I bought. I was told by a welding equipment service folks that a valve needs replacing after they inspected it – that is about $40 which, unless you bought your used torch extremely cheap, can suddenly raise the cost of the used torch to almost the same level as a new one. Not great. That said in my case I figured out that the valve is not leaking but incorrectly attached to the torch and I was able to fix it.