Additional thoughts, information and hints for our sword lines and products, including detailed introductions of new swords as they come in, special discounts and more.
These truly are beautiful blades – this one, the “Kusaboke” is the second sword in this series, the first being the “Matsu”
Both have stunningly well executed differentially hardened 5160 Spring Steel blades and best of breed fittings. Just take a look at the boshi, yokote and clean polished hamon below to get some idea of what kind of quality these swords represent..
And for the complete package..
$329.99 for a bare blade alone like this would be a bargain. But $329.99 for the sword with all iron fittings, cotton ito with hishigami, and high level QC and yeah, I really have no idea how much longer we can keep them at this price..
True enough, technically it’s not a ‘sword’ – though it could be argued it is just a sword with a super long handle! Either way, at $99 it’s a total bargain and looks great for display and is practical for defense.
Classic Tactical Katana style for bargain pricing ($99.99!) it’s a tough, no-nonsense, versatile 1060 carbon steel blade built for whatever you may need it for.
We did our best for as long as we could have, but couldn’t hold the $199.99 price tag on this one any longer.. But even at the new price of $229.99 this extremely accurate and popular WWII Officers Gunto is exceptional value and worth every penny and then some.
As much as I wish there was, there will never be such a thing as the perfect ‘internet’ Katana..
You can take quite a deep dive into the subject and a breakdown of the cost of all the parts, both large and small, over on this article below over on the main site towards the bottom of ‘How Modern Production Swords are Made’ where we break down the individual costs of a $300 sword along with what percentage of the sword comes from each part (each sword and brand is different, but this is a pretty good guideline).
But the gist of it is, for each part to be good, a lot of time and cost needs to go into it. At the high end, traditional smiths work all day with wet finger stones on a single blade for that final layer of smoothness.
But then there are swords were tradition more or less gets thrown out the window and over the years, some very cost effective and practical solutions have been found to make halfway decent barebone Katana for a good price.
But the new Horimono Collection from Ryujin takes value for money to a whole new level..
These are live, practical monotempered 65 spring tempered heavy blades (with false hamon for effect, love it or hate it, it is what it is) but they have several factors that put them close to that ‘perfect internet sword’ I was talking about at the start of this post..
Every innovation over the last 20 years in keeping costs down while still satisfying QC has been put into this new series of 5 unique and cool, very durable Katana with horimono engravings on each blade that some forges in Longquan charge close to the price of the WHOLE SWORD for one of these..
I mean, on a real spring steel blade – this kind of engraving suggests the sword is in the hundreds at least right?
Add to this real iron and brass fittings where nearly every other sub $150 sword uses cheap zinc alloys and wooden gaps showing from scrappy rayskin, loose or fuzzy cotton ito, etc, etc and these 5 new models aren’t just a nice new choice, they revolutionize the kind of tough but still beautiful backyard or dojo beater you can get these days..
And until October 20th, they are priced at truly INSANE prices considering what you get.
Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t perfect, for example some new time saving wrapping methods to ensure tightness and evenness means that you don’t get the much desired alternating ito wrap, the rayskin is synthetic (though it doesn’t repeat, look cheap and is actually sought after by some people who prefer no animal products in their blades). But the blades are solidly tempered 65mn Spring steel, and the engraving alone can cost $80 at some places and it uses fittings normally seen on swords at least two or three times the current price point.
Definitely worth checking out, and available in 5 unique cool styles so far.
MODEL ONE: “Lord of the Seas”
The naval colored ito and sageo with trident riding dragon definitely evokes a powerful naval feel to it, but just looks cool in its own right.
MODEL TWO: “Woodland Warrior”
I love the Dragon in this one, can just imagine it sleekly flying between trees as it hunts down its helpless prey and is complimented with natural brown themed fittings.
MODEL THREE: “Guardian of Fuji”
It’s mostly the tsuba, featuring Mt Fuji that gives this one it’s name, but also something about its Dragon resembles those painted by the likes of Hokusai, and the cool ‘Tiger’ themed black and gold ito wrap just makes this sword stand out.
MODEL FOUR: “Lawless Ronin”
This sword would not have belonged to a servant of the Shogun, that’s for sure. Square tsuba were outlawed at one point during the Edo period, and the colors and general style suggests this would have been the blade of a rebellious and Master-less Ronin.
MODEL FIVE: “Brass Dragon”
Using all brass fittings instead of iron, it’s a classic black Katana that like all the others, is just an absolute steal for the engravings alone..!
Q & A About the Horimono Collection (FAQ):
Are there any other Ryujin Swords that offer that kind of level of value?
Short answer – not really..! The Hatamoto II is also a monotempered 65mn Spring Steel blade – lighter and better balanced with the fittings all iron and hand made the old way and has real rayskin. But it’s $100 more and the blade is essentially the same steel tempered the same way. There’s a 1045 carbon steel blade in wood Shirasaya (pictured below) for $59.99 – but no, there really isn’t any sword with a halfway decent blade and fittings like this anywhere near this price point currently.
How do these compare to the recently released limited edition engraved Katana by Ryujin?
There are several key differences between the Limited Edition Ryujins and the Horimono Collection Swords. Engravings on the Ryujin series are slightly more subtle, but the main difference is the blades are lighter differentially hardened T10 tool steel with a real hamon temper line, use all iron fittings (the Fuchigashira in the Horimono series are brass, which still still VERY good is not quite as desirable as iron) and better quality hand wrapped ito with alternating wrap and real rayskin underneath. Plus the blade is about a half a pound lighter.
However, they are also nearly three times the cost, so just depends on what you like – durable and tough, or refined, more traditional and fast (and if you want one or 3 for the same price).
Crazy how cheap some decent blades are getting these days, only a few years ago you’d be lucky to get a basic 1045 carbon steel sword with zinc fittings for under $100..
But what if I REALLY can’t stand synthetic rayskin handle wraps..
For those of you who can’t get over synthetic rayskin, when you buy a sword under $100, a full wrap would cost $70, so they cut the leftover-bits into panels and slot them into place.
Panels were not uncommon historically, but ideally you want a full wrap to reinforce the tsuka structure, and if you put your biases aside for a moment lets take a look at a typical panel of a sub $200 sword and how there are gaps of wood showing because its so expensive to use, the panel is quite narrow:
Below is the synthetic version – full wrap all the way around for extra strength and a varied, realistic pattern that if it WAS real would cost at least $70 to the base price of a sword.
It’s not cheap and nasty looking, does the job better and helps us make this the sword the bargain that it is. And if that doesn’t convince you it’s worth it, let the savings pass you by..
Anyway, for everyone else who isn’t so worried about synthetics (but will happily buy a sword with rayon tsuka and sageo) – check these and other bargain Ryujin Swords out right here at the SBG Sword Store:
We have a tried a LOT of unique traditional Chinese sword designs over the years. But it would seem that as the industry has slowed down and lost momentum for high end Chinese swords (and honestly, who can blame them, some of the entry level stuff is pretty darned good!) – the time has come to more or less settle on the designs that will define the brand.
So quietly over the last few weeks and months, we have been re-organizing Forge Direct Chinese – bringing back two new blades, and getting rid of almost all the others until we have the best of the best, those blades that customers send us in glowing reviews time after time.
‘Swords’ such as the ‘Boar Killing Spear’ (technically a short hafted blade with extra long handle):
BOAR KILLING SPEAR IS BACK
And then at the Elite end, the complex Windsteel laminated folded blade and stunning fittings of the Monkey King sword (and with this one, if you need to ask how much it is, then you can’t afford it):
RETURN OF THE MONKEY KING
And then, one final hurrah on two swords before they go before the end of the month – the NEW Four Beasts Jian and the Dragon Tiger Jian. Maybe it was the economy, maybe people just didn’t like them – but they are on crazy discount pricing over on the HOT SPECIALS section until the end of the month, after which they join the sword graveyard in the sky..
And if that was not enough, at the end of the month we are also discontinuing our Project X Elite high polish Choji Katana and it will be sold off at Forge Direct levels until the end of the month.
It’s pretty crazy how the sword industry often doesn’t actually buy what it says it really wants – but either way, they aren’t many of these in the world so if you want a truly unique blade before its too late in a few days time, you had better put that custom order together quick quick..
And FINALLY (told you there was a lot of Forge Direct and Project X news going on right now) – we are proud to announce what might well be the last addition to the Forge Direct family.. The Dragon Dao Mk II!
Unlike the limited edition of 20pcs (that ran for around $1800 or so) – the simplified but hardly ‘stripped back’ version of the Dragon Dao is available all year long, looks as mean as hell and one cut and you will be hooked for life..
Check it out and the entire brand new and we hope more permanent, stable line up over at Forge Direct today:
The Winter Sun is a long bladed (30.5″ bladed) monotempered 5160 Spring Steel blade designed for practicality and long term durability in mind. Few 5160 monotemepered blades are just plain tough and forgiving as the Winter Sun, and it’s the kind of sword that has so much power behind it, it will plain old split your cutting stand in half and just wait for the next target..
It’s not just some bare bones tactical piece, the Winter Sun has class and style, with real iron and silver fittings, and if you buy it before the end of the month this blade that we normally squeeze our margins for to $349 is just $249.99 – lowest price it has EVER been. But only if you get it before the end of the month..
We have been ardent supporters of Darksword Armory since the beginning. Even though their earliest swords were ‘rustic’ at best and needed refinement, refinement and Darksword fit together like a hand and gauntlet.. And man, have we seen some amazing designs and tough, no-nonsense swords over the years..
There was one in particular I ALWAYS wanted to sell, but Darksword could never keep up with demand to be able to supply it themselves, never mind offer it somewhere else, and that was their Anduril replica.. So it is with absolute DELIGHT that I am proud to offer the most recent and true to the books version Darksword have ever made!
To say that they have taken this already fantastic sword to a never level is a total understatement. From the engraved and perfectly tempered 5160 blade to the fittings, I mean even the darned quillion looks good!
Now the new Anduril is a pretty darned act to follow. By DSA might just have pulled it off with two other Tolkein inspired fully functional masterpieces..
The Gurthag, a dark elven forged blade that brought great sorrow and slaughter might make the superstitious stay away from it with a 10′ pole, but for everyone else who loves I mean looking elf sword – it’s definitely one of the nicest ones out there!
And then finally, an Elven blade that makes sense to me personally – I often felt that Arming swords and Longswords don’t really suit the Elven fighting style, to be it’s either rapier or saber depending on when fighting on foot or on horseback. So High Elven King Ringil sword very much suits that latter vision.
Fans of battle ready Fantasy swords are really spoiled for choice with these three new swords. Check them out and more at our Darksword Armory page below for their full selection:
P.S. We are working to update all our pics of the Darksword images we have in our store over the coming days, weeks and (hopefully not) months.. The newer pics are the ones with brown backgrounds, any doubts – just ask!
