An antique oil lamp is a working appliance that happens to be a hundred years old, and it deserves the same respect a hundred-year-old anything earns: correct fuel, a maintained wick, and no improvisation. Most lamp accidents in collector circles trace to three mistakes — the wrong fuel, an over-trimmed or over-raised wick, and storing fuel in unlabeled containers. All three are avoidable in one read.
Burn kerosene or a purpose-made paraffin lamp oil — nothing else. Modern lamp oils are refined paraffin (sometimes scented), burn cleaner and lower-odor than straight kerosene, and are the right choice for indoor use. Plain 1-K kerosene is what most antique wicks were designed around, burns brightest, and smells like kerosene; it is the workhorse for outdoor and porch use.
The do-not-burn list is short and absolute: never gasoline, never charcoal lighter fluid, never alcohol or citronella torch fuel in a wick lamp. Fuels with wrong flash points ignite up the wick or flare when the lamp is moved. The flame you want is steady and slightly rounded; a flame that roars, smokes heavily, or reaches for the ceiling is the lamp telling you the fuel or the wick is wrong.
Wick height controls everything. The classic setting is a flame about half an inch tall after the lamp has warmed for a few minutes. Too low and the lamp smokes soot onto the chimney; too high and the flame flickers, smells, and can lick past the chimney's draft. Raise the wick until the flame just begins to smoke, then lower it a touch — that is your lamp's correct height, and it differs slightly lamp to lamp.
Trim the wick square and only when it chars unevenly: burnt wick develops a rough crown that makes the flame flicker. Trim above the char line, keep the top edge level, and round the corners very slightly. A wick is a consumable — replacing a worn wick is routine care, not a confession. Check that the replacement matches the burner's width and feed style; wick and burner are a pair, not a category.
Mantle lamps — the Aladdin style being the famous American line — burn fuel to heat an incandescent mantle rather than to show a flame, and they run hotter and brighter than wick lamps. The rules that change: the mantle is fragile ash (touch it and it crumbles — replace, don't repair), the lamp should reach operating temperature before you judge the light, and the mantle must be seated and burned in per the burner's design. Never run a mantle lamp without its chimney; the whole draft system depends on it.
Fill the font no more than three-quarters — fuel expands and font caps are not always vapor-tight. Fill outdoors or over a tray, never near the kitchen stove. Store fuel in the original or clearly labeled containers, away from living space. And the habit that saves lamps and fingers alike: let the lamp cool completely before refilling or moving it. A warm font with a loose cap is how fuel ends up on a table beside a lit match.
The oil lamp and Aladdin pages of any lamp directory eventually receive the same email: my grandmother's lamp still works — can I light it? Usually, yes, with new fuel, a fresh wick, and the checks above. The directory exists so the lamp gets classified and appreciated; this guide exists so it also gets lit safely, once, and then for another hundred years.