Reprinted from: Chicago Sun-Times
August 31, 2008
By Neil Steinberg Sun-Times Columnist

When was the last time you spent 20 bucks and got a really well-built device that also made you happy? I just did -- a Zippo lighter. For nearly 20 years, I had one, a solid rectangle of black steel, made in the good old USA. Open it, and you hear a sound like a shell being jacked into a fine shotgun; close it, and it's a Cadillac door thunking shut. It'll light a cigar in a gale, and the fluid in the reservoir is nearly the same stuff dry cleaners use, so you can remove spots in a jiffy when you're out on the town. With a Zippo in my pocket and my Gerber pocketknife, I'm ready to be transported from the Loop to the Great North Woods and have a chance at survival.

My only complaint about the old Zippo -- black matte, a gift from my wife -- is that, after nearly 20 years, I lost it. I think it fell out of my pocket while hammocking. I spent a month waiting for it to come back, then decided to buy a new one -- $21, in brushed brass.

Buying a new Zippo made me giddy, and a little worried. Our economy seems to be trying to survive by cheapening everything good. So I called the Zippo Manufacturing Co. with two burning questions. First, they could probably save a bit by making their lighters from a cheaper grade of steel. Will they? And second, they probably could shave a few dimes off their costs by making the lighters in China. Any chance of that?

No and no, said company spokesman Pat Grandy. "The founder's family still owns the company, and we are very dedicated to our small town in Pennsylvania."

That explains it. Begun in Bradford, Pa., in 1932, the name "Zippo" came about because founder George Blaisdell liked the word "zipper" and began playing around with variants. They've made nearly 500 million Zippos since then, will fix, free of charge, any lighter you somehow manage to break, but, alas, they do not replace lost lighters for free. As I suspected, a Zippo can and has stopped a bullet, saving lives, yet another reason to carry one.