I just got my The Burner in the mail today from the awesome group buy, and I've been asked to write up a little review for someone who's on the fence about buying one. So without further ado, here goes.
My first impression was that The Burner is a little smaller than I had imagined it would be. Oh well. It still looks nice on the table; it is better than having a teapot-sized butane bomb sitting next to cigars, or a giant chemistry lab sized bunsen burner spewing a tower of flame. It's stable and has some nice weight to it. It appears to be well made, and should serve for many long herfs
The control knob turns smoothly. There is a slight resistance when the knob is turned to or from the complete "off" position; no "click" that I was expecting. It is very easy to hear the gas escaping at any level of "on," so leaks should not be a great concern. The starter button clicks in fairly easily and ignites the gas with a tiny spark. The flame is a simple gas flame, not a "torch" like pressurized lighters produce. Lighting my Caminao figurado was a piece of cake.
The flame is adjustable via the control knob; however, the flame doesn't seem to be reacting very much. There are definite "low," "medium," and "high" levels of the flame that can be achieved by very fine control of the knob, but the flame reaches a nice size after about 1/8 of a turn and doesn't change much past that point. Being a simple flame and not a "torch," The Burner may not be your best bet when relighting or touching up. That said, it still performs nicely and puts out a good amount of heat.
This looks like it's going to be a solid and steady burner. We'll have to wait and see its rate of butane consumption. If you'd like a nice burner to sit on your table and always be there for you, the Alec Bradley The Burner is going to be a good choice.