Category Archives: Extra Product Info

If you have read any of my extensive reviews of the Generation 2/Legacy Arms swords or have been following SBG for any length of time you will know two important facts about Legacy Arms:

1. I really like their products. They are solidly made, hand forged 5160 Spring Steel ‘beater’ swords that I consider to be great value for money and..
2. They are REALLY hard to get hold of as the production runs at the forge in the Philippines is sporadic at the best of times.

I still agree with point number one – but for a very limited time 5 of my all time favorite models have just come back into stock after literally YEARS of being unavailable, and are sure to sell out faster than you can say ‘where did they go?’..

Here are the 5 swords I am referring to:

The first is the $279.99 Black Prince Sword – which went from being something of a sword shaped crowbar to a highly refined, extremely historically accurate fully functional replica of this famous long sword. There are only about 4 or 5 of these available, so they will be the first to sell out – especially at this price. Click here for our original review to see what all the fuss is about..

The second is the Excalibur sword – at $475 it is the most expensive sword in the Legacy Arms line up – but is worth every penny. With a whole lot of steel, solid brass fittings and a wire wrapped handle – it is pure class, and since it has been out of stock perhaps longer than any of the other swords that just landed, it is almost certainly going to end up sold out just as fast as the Black Prince. Click here for my classic review.

The third and fourth swords are a little harder to quantify which one I like best or think will sell out the fastest. But if I had to choose one, I would grab the Gladius again in a heartbeat, so I think it will have to come in at number three.

This Legacy Arms Maintz Gladius may not be the most historically accurate replica – especially with regards to the scabbard. But the blade itself is a solid performer, and was one of the first swords ever reviewed at SBG.. (click here for the testing results). And the best part, even in 12 years the price has not gone up – and is a total steal at $209.99..

Hot on its tails both chronologically and in terms of the best buy, the River Witham Viking Sword is a real treat, both in terms of build quality and handling. And pictures never do seem to do it justice.. Check out this review by Mike Harris to see why it compared favorably with an Albion, but at only a fraction of the price ($299.99).

And last but certainly not least, the beast of a sword that is the Templar Knight Sword.. It is a solid blade designed to take the Saracens head on and has some serious blade presence for its $279 price tag..

With 4 of the 5 swords here being sub $300 – this is a rare opportunity to grab a serious bargain while you still can and then you will know why I loved this brand so much and why I always recommended in my reviews, when they do become available, you need to pounce on the opportunity, as who knows when it will come around again..

Enjoy!

This should be the last post when I mention the site overhaul – it has been pretty all consuming for the last few weeks, and took a LOT longer to complete that I first expected and completely changed the look and feel of the main site and the store when it was not really supposed to be that dramatic..

That’s the way it goes with websites these days though I guess – what looks good on a desktop is often unreadable on a mobile or tablet, so in many ways it is like creating not one but around a dozen websites at the same time..

Anyway, over the last couple of weeks the site has gone from this format, which we introduced early last year but I was never fully satisfied with (too many navigation bars, top, left, right, center and bottom is just confusing – plus it all just jumbled up at the bottom when you look at it with mobile)..

The overhaul began in earnest just before Christmas, and as you will know from the previous blog posts, had a bit of a false victory..

It started off looking like this..

Same basic theme but simplified. So I thought..

Unfortunately, it was a complete mess in mobile – and the store especially so. Several days over the holiday period were spent pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to make the site, the store and the blog compliment each other and keep a kind of central theme and I had to strip it all back to the basics.

The end result?

At least, this is how it looks on a desktop or sideways held tablet.. 😉

The format is much cleaner – just one navigation bar that stays in place on the left hand side as you scroll down the page. A page width that works with pages built from 2005 to 2016 and beyond – and a nod to recurring themes that have appeared in previous incarnations of the site – scrolls, parchments, a white background – some black, some red and some grey – and – of course – a picture of a sword of some type that is not a wallhanger featured prominently (in this case, the prototype Forge Direct Custom Katana I had made for myself reviewed here).

There will probably need to be a few more minor tweaks over the course of the year, but the basic theme should not change all that much. Whats next is content – the most important thing. And lots of it..

In the meantime, this month will see a focus on two main product lines – Longship Armoury and Forge Direct..

Right now we are in the final month of taking pre-orders of the final run of the last 10 of 20 Furia swords made in the USA by John Lundemo – so securing the final pre-orders will be a priority for January. But at the same time, with Chinese New Year about to shut down all production of swords in a few weeks for over a month – we will be offering a special deal on our entire Forge Direct line – including three new swords..

Here is a preview of the three swords (click for a larger image)..

As the wait time will go up significantly, the price will come down signficantly to make up for it.. So stay tuned..

Speaking of sneak previews and swords made in the USA – here is a pic of a brand new prototype we are having commissioned. An incredibly mean, and affordable (will be sub $300!) Tactical style Ko Katana blade that is currently being prepared for some heavy destructive testing by our friend Jason Woodard..

Just a cursory look and I think you will agree, this one looks like it will be a lot of fun!

And this is just what is in store for the first couple of months of 2017 – if all goes well we will be taking some new orders on the monthballed SBG Custom Katana, introducing even more products and brands and much, much more..!

Next post will be on the pending Forge Direct Chinese New Year Sale – so talk to you all again very soon!!

-Paul

It is PROBABLY too late for Christmas to get one of these delivered in time (unless you order a Ryujin Custom Katana and live close to California – the elves at the Ryujin workshop have gone into overdrive and have been assembling and sending out swords within 48 hours recently instead of the usual week!) but Christmas aside for a moment – just a quick update on our current two main custom Katana lines.

First off, the elite level Forge Direct Custom Katana now has the O-Katana as a separate product in its own right.

The reason for this is two fold:

1. I was not comfortable with the necessary price fluctuation on the Custom Katana to make it an O-Katana. The idea was to have ONE flat rate price regardless of your customization choices OR where you live in the world, but we simply could not offer an O-katana for the price of a standard length Katana, so made it a break away product in its own right and..
2. It became apparant that it was not always feasible for the O-Katana to have every saya made that can be offered for the standard Katana line. The reason is that the saya come from a third party saya specialist provider, and we could not afford to buy in bulk every type of saya as they don’t deal in single quantity orders. Additionally, the time frame of the O-Katana is about 2 weeks longer than the standard Katana. So we changed the saya options, info – and dropped the price from just over to just under $1000..

Check it out HERE

WIth the Ryujin custom Katana line, we added 2 new saya options:

New Option 1: Gun Metal Grey

Saya Option 2: Matt Dark Red

And finally, the Gold ito wrap is back in stock if you want to get regal with it.

Check out the full Ryujin Custom Katana line up HERE