Irish Pride

St. Patrick's Day is coming soon and everyone is Irish on St Patrick's Day. You! Me! Everyone! At ArmyNavyShop we're not ones to sit on the sidelines during any kind of celebration, especially one as fun and festive as St Patty's Day. Woot! Go Green!

Get your Irish on and show your St Patty's Day spirit with a little help from your friends at ArmyNavyShop with an authentic Irish flag. Perfect for flying and waving during the holiday and for all year round if you like. The Irish national flag is a simple, yet elegant triple vertical stripe design of green, white and orange respectively.

Our Irish flag is sturdy and durable all-weather polyester and is large and in charge at 3 feet tall by 5 feet wide.

St. Patrick's Day is March 17, 2012 - there's still plenty of time to get your Irish flag in time for the big green celebration!

Zippity Do Da

It's hard to imagine that a small device used for igniting a flame could ever reach an iconic status, but one such device has managed to do so over the majority of the past century. This year marks the 80 year anniversary of Zippo brand lighters, and there are a few things you should know if you are looking to purchase one. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and these collectible little flame makers have seen their share of imposters. Here are a few things you should know about finding authentic zippo lighters.

1) Fake Zippo lighters will come with a non-Zippo insert. Real Zippo lighters will be branded with Zippo on the insert with a message about using only Zippo brand flints and fluids. A fake one just gives a message like "keep away from children" and the mount for the spring cam is usually way too wide causing it to move from side to side.

2) The Zippo stamp on the bottom of the fake lighter will often look a bit irregular. On authentic devices, the flame over the "i" is noticeably taller than the rest of the letters. On the fake, the letter Z is as tall as the top of the flame. The stamping will also be much fainter.

3) You may notice that the spot welds on authentic Zippo hinges are often oval and not very obvious. A fake lighter welds are deeper and almost perfectly round

4) The large majority of knockoff Zippos will almost always leave out an orange safety sticker. Authentic Zippo lighters have included a small orange sticker for at least 30+ years so be sure to check for that.

5) You will also want to look at the date code stamps. A fake date code stamp has thinner letters and numbers which are usually faint in appearance. Legit stampings are deep and the lines much thicker. Be sure to also check where it says "MADE IN USA". We've seen fake ones where 'USA' is taller than 'MADE IN'. Authentic lighters will always be uniform in appearance.

So tell us, have you ever been burned by a fake Zippo (pardon the pun)? Let us know in the comments and be sure to check out the full line of eclectic Zippo lighters at Army Navy Shop.

What's With All The Paracord Stuff?

OK, so although we offer Paracord, basically a wad of rope, over the past year or so, sales have gone thru the roof. So I decided to look into why? Although I'm not 100% sure, it seems that many people are using it to make other items, such as paracord bracelets, lanyards, belts, necklaces and key chains. Army Navy Shop offers paracord in many different lengths and colors. I guess it's more of a craft item than an end user product. If you've never seen paracord, it's actually kinda cool. It's not like that thick rope you see in home improvement stores. It's only 5/32" thick, but has a 550 pound test strength.... that's pretty strong! It's usually made of 100 nylon and has a 7 strand core. If you are a creative kind of person, you could come up with all kinds of things that you could make using paracord. One guy made himself a guitar strap with it. Since it is available in many colors, you could even incorporate a pattern into whatever you are making. Why not share you're ideas or experiences with how you use paracord. We'd love to hear from you.

Fond Flannel Memories

Dontcha just love flannel shirts? Such fond memories attached to them. The nineties. Grunge rock. Purposely messy hair. Torn jeans. Skipping class. Smoking in the girls room.

Me and my friends pretty much wore a flannel shirt every day of the week. We even wore them in the summer. There was just no containing the mighty breadth of our alternative rock coolness.

But alas, those days are gone. Nowadays people wear flannels simply to keep themselves warm. And it works too. Go figure.

They're no longer the Seattle-based, alternagrunge, burnout teenage fashion statement they once were, but seriously, that's a good thing. They're flannels and they're warm and that's good enough for me.

Get yourself some toasty warm flannel shirts at ArmyNavyShop.com.