Zippo: The first name in flame

Bradford, Pa., is not a place where one would expect an international icon to be made. It’s located about 130 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, near the New York border, where the landscape is lush with trees and wildflowers, the deer-to-human ratio weighs heavily in favor of the deer and tourists driving along historic U.S. Route 6 can travel for an hour without seeing so much as a single dwelling or gas station.

But three famous products come from this unassuming little mountain town. The first is Brad Penn motor oil, a high-grade, high-performance automotive lubricant that’s probably better known on the racing circuit than to average drivers. The other two—Zippo lighters and Case knives—are collectible icons sought around the world, and both are products of a family-owned business.

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