Trench Art
 

I visited an antique store this past weekend and encountered this little gem and just had to buy it ($75). This thing is so cool. I appreciate the work it took to make it. The 'bullet' part was apparently machined from billet aluminum :)

The tag listed it simply as "Trench Art". While it is art, it is a very creative lighter. Most probably some vet who had machinist skills crafted this lighter from a brass shell and another mystery component. In my imagination this aluminum part appears to be the detonator/business end of a mortar or small bomb shell. Am I correct?

I am sure there are some ordinance experts on the forum that can also identify the shell, that only shows "L C 43" on the bottom.

Any help would be appreciated.

Lastly, yes, I just had to polish it. It was really cruddy. :o

I may be wrong(happens often), but I believe that the L C 43 is for Lake City ammo plant, and the cartridge/shell was manufactured in 1943.

Correct! I Googled Lake City Ammo and found their website. They actually had a photo of the identical (1943) headstamp on a 50 cal. shell casing on the Wikipedia main page. That made for a quick and easy i.d. :D. Thank you.