Category Archives: Store Product Info and Musings

Paul Chen’s Hanwei Forge has been fairly quiet in terms of new releases – but all that changed a few days ago..

Unfortunately, one of the swords really has come out at the worst possible time – so let’s get this one out of the way first..

The timing really could not be much more worse than this – just as Hanwei launch their tribute to the Russian Imperial Army, Russia launches a war against the Ukraine.. So really, the less said the better I think..

Here it is – a fine sword in its own right..

But it has definitely been released at the worst possible time (no fault of Hanwei’s – like the rest of us they had no idea we would be seeing a War in Europe in 2022)..

Thankfully the other 5 swords are not quite as controversial – starting with two new T10 tool steel Katana named after two of the most prominent Daimyo in Japan’s long and turbulent history – starting with the Tokugawa Katana:

And complimented by the Hideyoshi Katana – both just $779.99

And then there are two new releases of two older products – the antiqued version of the Scottish Basket-hilt Backsword:

And a similar but quite different Basket-hilt Broadsword:

And finally, a very affordable and nifty little Saxon/Viking Scramasax replica with Stag handle and carbon steel blade for just $85..

Our friends at the Hanwei Forge have FINALLY received a partial restock shipment that they had originally been hoping would arrive in mid-November last year – and have gone from literally NOTHING in stock to a fairly good representation of what they usually carry..

Notable restocks include one of their most popular and well made medieval sword replicas, the Albrecht II:

The truly beautiful Premium Quality Swedish Powder Steel made Bushido Katana:

And a true classic, the folded steel Godfred Viking Sword:

In addition, the master distributors of Hanwei, CAS IBERIA also restocked some popular items from Dragon King, Kingston Arms and even the A.P.O.C. Series!

While in most cases it is only a partial restock, it is indeed another case of better late than never – and though the landed cost has increased dramatically at our end, we have only raised prices where the new cost price is higher than our sale price – though price pressure remains incredibly high, so we really don’t know how much longer we can keep the prices where they are..

In the meantime, check out the following brands to see what the restocks have brought:

It has taken quite a few additional months than what we had anticipated, but once again it is a case of better late than never as we restock a large and varied assortment of swords, blades and training tools.

One extremely popular restock is the twin backmounted LARP Katana set by Sparkfoam – still amazing value and a whole lot of good clean fun for just $49.95

For REAL live bladed Japanese swords, we just refreshed our stock of the extremely popular (and still available at the special price of just $199.99) and quite historically accurate replica of the WWII Officers Gunto:

For Chinese swords, we also see the return of the very affordable, meaty and solid blade of the Yong Lo Sword – still just $169.99 which is pretty insane value for a battle ready sword that looks like, well, looks like THIS:

And to round it all off, how about an ultra modern ‘claw in your pocket’ of the “Raptor” Folding Karambit by DEFCON – just $185.95:

Quite a wide variety of products back in stock with more trickling in as the year slowly begins to gather momentum..

First things first, as per our official guide to the holiday season – the ideal time to order any swords or sword related products has long since passed (any orders placed after the 8th of December may well have a hard time arriving in time for Christmas, so any orders placed from today – will probably not arrive until AFTER the holiday season).

Because swords can be damaged by excessively rough handling (and with the world’s postal and courier services pretty much fed up after nearly 2 years of almost single-handedly keeping the modern world moving along with very little respect or gratitude, rough handling for Christmas 2021 will likely be the norm rather than the exception) – we will not be doing any ‘rush orders’ or anything that will more likely than not just end up with a damaged or lost product at the worst possible time..

Best solution if you have left it too late? Gift Certificates

Tatami Mat Restock

In recent years, getting a supply of tatami mats has been a real challenge. So when we are able to get in a few boxes, it’s quite newsworthy.

Available in boxes of 20 (individually they work out to cost around $10.49 per mat) – stock is limited, so if you need some good mats at the best possible price, grab some while you can.

And while you are there, save time and messing around by buying an easy to assemble cutting stand kit for $99.99

Suitable for tatami, and by removing the central peg, can also be used for water filled bottles!

Post Script: Runaway inflation and shipping increases meant that the old price we sold the mats for actually cost us a small fortune (we are charging $20 shipping, but the actual cost is closer to $50-60 – and it meant we lost money with every recent order).

Not fun, but to make it viable we needed to raise the price – and for everyone who was lucky enough to get them at the old ‘pre-pandemic’ pricing, you will not see prices like that again anytime soon.