Category Archives: SBG Custom Katana

Hi all,

As you know we had some SERIOUS delays with batches 32 and 33 of the SBG Custom Katana to the point where we had to stop taking new orders to try and catch up..

The bad news is, we are not yet back on track – indeed, batch 34 just became officially due a couple of days ago and is looking like it will also be several weeks late due to the pile up from the previous 2 batches..

Talk about stressful…!!

The good news is, batch 32 is about to come in – right now it is clearing customs. And a little more good news, the swords themselves are looking good. Below are some pics from the forge that were taken before it was dispatched..

I realize it is annoying to batch 33 and 34 customers – but please bear with us guys. We will be shipping everything in order, so some additional delays are inevitable..

Thanks so much for your patience. I am REALLY looking forward to getting the custom Katana back on track and truly apologize for the extra time it is taking.

– Paul

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for your patience – I am pleased to let you know that the forge manager is back on his feet again and while he cannot lift anything heavier than a sword unsheathed for a bit, he is getting better and we are working to make sure that the current backlog gets resolved asap.

The batch status page has been updated to reflect where we are currently up to, but just a quick overview – batch 32 – which is seriously overdue, is now clearing customs and hopefully we will have some more news on this later in the week. Batch 33 is apparently right behind, so we are quickly getting caught up and will do our best to work through it all without rushing and making any silly mistakes, so we do ask for just a little extra patience during this time while we sort through it.

Looking forward to getting caught up soon. We also further delayed the long overdue restock of the SBG Black Dragon series Katana to concentrate on getting caught up – can’t wait to see another round of the Black Dragon Elite. Oh well..

Will update you all on the situation again soon. If I can get some pics sent over of where we are at too without slowing things down even further I will.

Thanks again for your continued patience and support.

Sincerely,

– Paul

Hi Everyone, update time – and we do have quite a bit of news to get through..

First off, a quick look at the current delivery schedule for batches 32 and 33 shows we have a bit of a bottleneck occuring due to some issues earlier on sourcing the tsuba and fuchi kashira sets. While the blades are well and truly finished, the difficulty sourcing all the necessary components threw a spanner into the works for timely delivery..

To make matters worse, communication with the forge right now is hampered because my primary contact there and good friend since this whole project began some 7-8 years ago recently ended up in the hospital for an extended stay following heart valve surgery (the poor guy is only in his mid twenties too, though it is a genetic condition – so best it is dealt with when he is young and fit).

Anyway, these two factors combined have slowed down the shipments and made it very hard to determine where everything is up to when customers (understandably) request updates..

As such, please bear with us while we get everything back on track. It will take a while until my contact is out of the hospital, so for a week or two we may be “going blind”. During this time we will only know when a shipment is coming in, and will only know what is in it when we physically open and inspect it.

My apologies for these unexpected delays.

In truth batch 32 is only around 3 weeks behind schedule, and batch 33 is not actually quite yet due. And our two man team of inspection and shipping agents are standing by to spring into action as soon as the first shipments come in, so hopefully the delays will not be too much longer.

But as we have a lot to sort through and cannot provide much information during this period, we hope for your understanding and assure you we are doing our best to minimize the delay as much as humanly possible (I suppose it is not that bad, custom orders of any kind often run behind schedule, and in the sword industry delays of months to years are not at all unheard of, so in the grand scheme of things we are still doing ok. But we feel the pressure acutely and really do push hard to make sure you guys get what you paid for as soon as possible while minimizing mix ups and delays as much as we possibly can)..

Because of these delays, the current batch that is open for orders will be the last one until we have caught up on the backlog and are back on track again with all batches coming in smoothly again.

So please rest assured, we are doing our best and will continue to provide updates as best as we can until things are running smoothly again.

Thanks for your understanding. Will update you all again shortly (phew)…

– Paul Southren

Just a quick update on the Custom Katana batches for everyone.

Currently we have two batches in production, batches 32 and 33 and just closed off on batch 34 a short time ago, so are currently cross checking with last minute orders to make sure everything is in order and preparing to send the customization instructions to the forge.

We also have around 3 or 4 blades (including tanto) from batches 30 and 31 that came in late either because we had to change the components due to unavailability and because, as stated previously, there were delays with the tanto for those batches caused by Chinese New Year. These blades are about to go out, so thanks to those customers who patiently waited and apologies for the lengthy delay..

Batches 32 and 33 are coming along well, batch 32 is due in around 6 weeks from now and so far is on schedule and if all goes well it looks like batch 33 may come in ahead of schedule. So please stay tuned for updates as we go..!

Phew, things have been crazy busy with batches 30 and 31. Most people in batch 30 and some in batch 31 have already been contacted once we have confirmed that their sword came in and was error and flaw free (try saying flaw free three times fast without making a mistake!).

Speaking of mistakes, in batch 30, I made a couple of exceptions for individual customers – something that I normally don’t do because in the past it messes up the system we have refined over the years – and as such, the error rate on customizations shot up to the highest level I have seen in years. Granted, it was a bigger batch than normal – but there were around 5 or 6 individually wrong customizations (i.e. everything as ordered except wrong ito color, or wrong saya color, etc). So frustrating for everyone when this happens, but our Canada team caught each one before shipping and we have already talked to all the customers effected who are getting priority remakes – in the meantime, we will offer the wrongly customized swords as scatch and dents and one off’s.

In the spirit of full disclosure, here are some of our batch 30 blunders..

Doh, customizations were correct except the ito – should have been purple.. A decent looking sword though, and excellent quality. Priority Remake being done for the customer.

Saya was right, but the ito should have been red on this one..! Argh.. Priority renmake, I don’t know if this a crash hot color combination, if we sell as a scratch and dent it will be a low price.. Priority remake in progress at the forge for the customer.

Customizations were perfect on this one, but white using two pieces of rayskin is standard at this price point, the customer agreed it ruined the appearance – especially on a leather wrap. So its being remade as we speak at the forge, sans rayskin gap (rayskin is super expensive, so they use every strip rather than throw it away. Understandable, and ok for the LITES maybe, but not 3.0 Katana)

Otherwise though, the majority of batch 30 should all be shipped out by this weekend – and some of batch 31. We still have a handful of swords that did not clear customs that we are still working on and those Aikuchi Tanto that should be leaving the forge this week, so don’t worry – while we are super busy managing it all, rest assured that we are on the case and no one has been forgotten and no orders lost. We have a pretty good system of tracking everything these days, and the overall quality just keeps on getting better and better..

As long as I don’t allow any more exceptions that is! (we will have to look at some option for fully customized swords that is OUTSIDE the batches so it doesn’t effect them. But for now, please don’t ask for any options that fall outside of what we offer as standard – it has a nasty flow on effect that messes up the system we have developed over the years and hits orders batch wide).

In other custom Katana news, batch 32 is well underway, as are the priority remakes seen above, and there are only 12 more days before batch 33 closes, so as usual we are super busy. But the new Canadian sorting and inspecting team are doing a great job, they go over each sword with a fine toothcomb checking for defects or customization errors – so while it slows things down a bit, the end result is a sword with an unheard of level of QC at this price point. Hard to do, but worth it when we hear from a delighted customer who gets so much more than they expected..

Got to get back to it all – looking forward to getting these straggler batches 30 and 31 all sorted out for everyone. I think you will find, they are worth the wait..

– Paul