JM 1ST APPROACH

SHOT Show 2011 is less than three weeks away. For those not familiar with this show, it is the largest trade show focused on guns, knives, tactical, camping and outdoor gear out there. This show is where many manufacturers choose to announce and show off the newest and best products.

Sadly, the show is not open to the public, so unless you are involved in the industry you will not be able to attend. Thankfully there is quite a bit of media that covers the event. People like Nutnfancy and others cover it on youtube, and there are also a number of blogs that help the average consumer keep updated. If you want to get a little better idea of the show and its importance, this link will get you to their site. Otherwise stay tuned, because our favorite manufacturers always have some fun stuff to announce at the show.

Often times people ask us what knife would be good for their friends/relatives that are not knife people. There are many great options, the important things to consider are that the knife be easy to use, and not intimidating. Four styles that are at the top of this list are the slip joint, the multi blade folder, the lockback, and the assisted opener.

Why everyone should carry a pocket knife

Perhaps the simplest style of knife to operate is the traditional slip joint, because the blade is held in place with friction instead of a locking mechanism, closing the blade is much simplified. One of our favorite slip joints is the UK Penknife by Spyderco it is available with a variety of handle materials and blade steels for every budget.

The multi blade folder is a classic style, for years they have been passed down from fathers to sons and cherished by all. Typical knives of this style are trappers, whittlers, and the canoe just to name a few. Another popular knife of this style is the traditional Swiss Army Knife. Some great options for multi blade folders are the products by Case or possibly Kissing Crane Knives.

The lockback style has been around for ages, and is a simple yet effective way to keep the blade in place. Many people prefer the lockback to a liner lock or frame lock knife because you do not need to put your fingers in the way of the blade to close the knife. Lockbacks come in all shapes in sizes, but we think a good beginner design is the Spyderco Delica the handle comes in the affordable fiberglass reinforced nylon which is available in a variety of colors which make it less intimidating.

Many people prefer the ease (and fun) of an assisted opening folder. These knifes use a spring to hold the blade closed, but when you open the blade to a certain point, the spring takes over and opens the blade the rest of the way. This allows the user to open the knife easily with one hand. One of our favorite assisted openers is the Chive by Kershaw. It weighs under two ounces, and can be kept on a keychain or clipped onto your pocket with the included clip.

No matter what knife you end up giving as a beginner, the most important thing is that you make sure they are comfortable with the operation of their new tool.

More Site Improvements: Security 101

We always get a lot of customers concerned about their security on the web and we wanted to address this in a blog post.  First off, we should note that we respect our customers privacy in every way.  We never share their information with any other services and unlike other sites we do not keep any of your credit card information.  This helps insure that your information is as safe as possible. As the web continues to progress security gets better and better and we continue to comply to the highest and best web standards. During the past year aloe we have improved our site security from 128 bit encryption to 256 bit encryption as well as added a new Hacker Guardian tracker to show all of our customers each day that their information is safe with us.

Below is a little bit of information about each of our security efforts.

PCI Compliance Verification by Hacker Guardian

The data security standards set by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) are mandatory requirements for anyone who accepts, processes, or stores credit card data. We use Hacker Guardian to assure our customers that we are compliant.  The HackerGuardian PCI scanning tool scans our externally-facing IPs and generates reports telling us each day whether or not we are compliant.  In addition it lets our customers know that we are on top of our security.  

EV SSL Enhanced Security

Obtaining an Extended Validation SSL certificate requires a rigorous validation performed by Comodo, a registered Certificate Authority (CA). This is required to ensure that the company behind the site meets Extended Validation standard. These strict validation guidelines help keep the green address bar associated with only trusted organizations to maintain the highest level of security and trust with visitors.

We provide our customers and visitors with futureproof security and visual assurance by employing Comodo's popular business validated SSL certificate, Comodo SSL. The Comodo SSL is the professional solution for securing your web server and providing visual assurance to your website visitors. This SSL certificate is 2048-bit ready and includes the patented Corner-of-Trust logo. This included trustmark implements all of Comodo's patent-pending technologies to invite visitors to interact and validate identity. Comodo SSL certificates give visitors the gold padlock and freedom from security warnings while over secure HTTPS connection on your site. With the help of the Comodo trustmark, our visitors know that they are interacting with a secure and authentic domain even when they are not in HTTPS session. 

Additional benefits of Comodo SSL:

Protects customers' sensitive information with 256 bit encryption
2048-bit ready keeps our certificate secure for years to come
Each customers information is insured up to $250,000.00 

So for the last month and a half or so we have been working on our new iPhone App! It has taken a while to get all of the bugs out but we are excited to announce today that our first version of it is finally available for download! http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/not-your-mamas-knives/id393960208?mt=8

The app not only allows you to browse our large catalog of knives but also allows you to see images of each of them and detailed information, the same level that you recieve on our site. In addition under the "More" section of the app you can see the Blade Style Guide, the Steel Guide, our Knife Glossary, and more!

We actually think that it may be a better buying experience than our website.  We will continue to work on it to improve it more and more in the coming months adding new features and allowing you to find the products you want even faster than you do now.  But we thought you might be interested in seeing our first draft!  

To all of our customers we thank you again for letting us do what we love the most!  SELL KNIVES!!! 

If there is one thing that we enjoy more than Microtech knives (we will get more into that later) it is being able to offer these amazing knives to you guys at a discount!. In addition to the discount, we are also taking some of the new stickers that Microtech recently had made, and giving these stickers out free with every Microtech knife ordered.

It seems like almost daily we get asked about which automatic knives we prefer and why. While there are quite a few companies making high quality side openers, when it comes to OTF (Out The Front) automatics, it is pretty much a one horse show. Benchmade and Piranha both manufacture nice OTF knives, and there are a couple other companies that also make them, but not in very large quantities. The OTF offerings from Microtech are just awesome. They are powerful, mean looking, fast, and the designs are very innovative. The lockup is very tight, and most importantly they stand behind their products.

Visit Microtech Website

Their site is currently going through some major upgrades, but soon you will be able to find out about all their current models, how to care for your knife, what different options are available and much more. Microtech has a limited lifetime warranty on all their knives (will not cover abuse/neglect or any knives that have been disassembled by the customer.)

In order to clear out a few items that we are overstocked on, Use coupon code MICROSTICK10 to get 10% off any Microtech purchase, plus get a free Microtech sticker. Included in this sale are the recent run of Executive Scarabs and Bayonet Grind Ultratechs. We have already pre-sold a large number of the Scarabs, and do not expect the rest to last very long. Those who have followed our inventory in the past also know that last time we had the Bayonet Grind Ultratechs they went very fast as well. It is a cool design, and really something different from the usual single or double edged blade.

We want to get more people involved on our Facebook page,ask questions, upload your favorite knife pictures, tell us about knives or other products that you want or wished we carried. To help this process along, we are going to be giving away a brand new Microtech t-shirt to a random fan starting at 400 fans. We will repeat the process at 425, 450, and 475 people. When we hit the magic 500, we will give some lucky winner the Facet. This knife has a MSRP of 300 dollars, and anyone should be tickled to receive it.

Click Here for Facebook Page

So sign up if you have not already, get your friends to sign up also, and lets get talking knives!

In other exciting knife news, Microtech has made a small run of Executive Scarabs. For those who aren't familiar with the model, picture a regular Scarab, then take away the traction inserts and leave the handles smooth. They are sleek looking, fire fast, and best of all, you have a cool rare factor (they do not make them often at all) and they are cheaper than the original. We have them on a pre-sale on the site right now for those who can't wait, and don't worry- cards do not get charged till the item ships like always.

We are also offering a coupon good for 10% off any of our Lone Wolf or Benchmade products. Use code BENLONE when checking out for this discount. This is to celebrate Benchmade recently purchasing the Lone Wolf knife company and adding their line into their already massive catalog.

Favorite small folder- Gerber Ultralight LST (6050)

Favorite Medium Sized Folder- Spyderco Delica 4 FFG- Honorable mention goes to the Spyderco Kukuri, but they are no longer available.

Favorite OTF- Microtech UTX-85

Favorite Side Opening Automatic- Piranha Bodyguard, A close second in this Catergory goes out to the Pro-Tech Runt J4

Favorite Multi-Tool- Leatherman Charge TTi (Until I get my hands on a MUT, then we may have a new winner.)

Favorite Tactical Folder- Cold Steel Recon 1 Tanto

Over the past few years we have REALLY GROWN! And during this growth some of our customers have loved us and other have hated our guts. However, both parties have been quick to offer suggestions on how we could be better and we have been carefully taking notes. A few months ago we hired Jake who has taken over customer service and made it significantly better, and while he has been working on that we have been building our new site. We took all of your suggestions and have used as many of them as we possibly could. What you will find is a website designed specifically for knife lovers.

Here is what we are doing different:
1. Your card does not charge until the item ships.
2. You will now be able to compare products side by side with each other, comparing details for details. This feature will get better as we continue to rewrite every product description that we have. (This will take a few months)
3. Our newsletter subscribe/unsubscribe actually works.
4. You can now check out as a guest without us saving any of your information except the address. (We have to ship it to you somehow)
5. We have added a wishlist so as you move through our thousands of products you can create a list to come back to in the future.
6. We believe that our new advanced search is the BEST in the industry.
7. We now offer a gift certificate system
8. As part of the redesign we created a "mobile" version of our site so that those with smart phones or ipod touches can use their phones to search our site without being required to use the full version.
9. Much better internal tracking system so that you can track your UPS shipments right on our website.

We hope that you enjoy our new site and we look forward to your feedback in the coming years. Please note that we are listening and doing everything we can to keep our customers happy as we continue to grow in the future!

Sincerely,

Not Your Mamas Knives Staff