Category Archives: Sword Sales

A New sub $200 Chinese Broadsword in time for Christmas..

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This is one of the last offers of the year, and it’s a sword I have been looking forward to for some time..

I love a well made Chinese Dao – especially those from the Ming Period onwards that are commonly seen in surviving Kung Fu styles and systems. And for the money, this is one of the best around..

There is nothing fancy about this sword – it is pure functionality. The blade is made from well tempered 65MN Spring Steel, an affordable but very tough steel and weighing in at just 1.8lbs is fast in the hand but balanced so that each cut delivers maximum force and cutting power.

Originally the Chinese Dao was a straight bladed single edged sword such as the recently introduced Forge Direct Yi-Dao (pictured below) and were more often than not double handed, though shorter single handed versions were not unheard of.

However, after ‘encounters’ with the curved Mongol blades and after the collapse of the Yuan Dynasty where the Mongols controlled all of China (1279-1368) in the early Ming Dynasty the Dao took on a curved shape, some curved only towards the tip (Goosequill saber) but most were like our version, subtly curved along the entire length of the blade and were known as Liuyedao (willow leaf, named as such for the blades resemblance to the leaf of a willow tree) such as this ornate version from the By Metropolitan Museum of Art, online collection (accession number 14.48.2a) pictured below.

Personally, what I like most about these swords is that they are exceptionally good cutters. Sure, the tip is quite lethal, but it is in the cut where this sword really excels. And when used by a skilled martial artist, they come alive like few other swords, spinning, whirling and wooshing through the air – each movement unpredictable and almost too fast for the eye to track.

While the video below is done with a lightweight Wushu training sword (which are the whippy blades designed purely for sporting purposes) it gives you some idea of how versatile a single handled Dao can be.

https://youtu.be/6xdO-NyyPNY

Here’s another couple of useful Dao related videos you might want to check out, the first one a basic introduction.

And another from forged in fire where functional Dao are put to the test..

In the meantime, here are some higher resolution pics of the sword we are offering – not $389.99 but just $149.99!

Pretty amazing bang for your buck, but as with each new product – we are never sure how fast or how well they will sell, so as stock is limited and with Christmas just around the corner, if you want one you had better act fast.. Just click the link below for all the details in our store.

$149.99 65MN Spring Steel Dao

Special Half Price Offer on the New Yue Maiden Sword by Forge Direct

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Now just $900 $450 with FREE SHIPPING

A beautiful sword with a beautiful, if fanciful backstory, I was personally surprised that when we offered the Yue Maiden Sword by the Baojian Forge at a 25% discount we had no takers..

Click on the pics for higher resolution images.

(More high resolution pics available here in a Facebook Album)

So after talking it over with the forge, we decided to offer it at the absolute best price possible to get the word out about this stunning design and the Forge in general (basically, to use a marketing term, as a ‘loss leader’ – we don’t make any money from it, but we get the word out about the quality of these swords and the forge in general).

A Fascinating Backstory

The Yue Maiden is a famous character from Chinese Wuxia – a genre of storytelling with martial arts heros, the most well known in the West perhaps the movie ‘Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’.

Originally penned by Hong Kong by Louis Cha for the Ming Pao Evening Supplement, the tale was first serialized in the 1970s and was later adapted into a movie in 1986 called “Super Swordslady”.

https://youtu.be/x0I9Vbgy4Mo

Set during the wars between the rival Kingdoms of Yue and Wu over 2500 years ago, the central character Aqing is a seemingly simple Shepard herder who has a curious secret friend, a mysterious white Gibbon, who in the course of play fighting and sparring with her, teaches her sword fighting skills above and beyond a mere mortal..

Discovered by a loyal advisor to the King of Yue, and learning of her skills, she recruits him to train the trainers – and pass on her secrets to the Yue army – and with her sword fighting methods now in their arsenal, the Yue go on to win many a victory against the Wu Kingdom.

But as with all good stories, there is a twist – the young Aqing falls in love with the royal advisor, and becomes insanely jealous when she discovers he is married to the most beautiful woman in all of China, Xi Shi (pictured left), who is rescued and re-united with the advisor after a recent victory against the Wu who had been keeping her prisoner.

Furious, the ‘Super Swordlady’ confronts the helpless young woman – thrusting her blade towards her, but catching herself before delivering the fatal blow..

Yet her internal energy was such that it continued to travel through the sword and caused the advisors beautiful wife to recoil in pain, but upon her face an expression “so beautiful that it will take away the soul of any man who looks upon her” – and Aqing is left sad and alone, yet at the same time, a celebrated hero famous among her people but heartbroken until the end of her days..

While the 1970s version of the story is the most well known, it is actually much older – where she is known not as Aqing but as Yuenü, Aliao and simply the maiden of the Southern Forest.

In the mythological version, she was first trained in swordmanship and archery by her father – but again encounters the white gibbon, this time in the form on an old man, who teaches her the deepest secrets of swordsmanship by combining Yin and Yang to produce Chi energy that no mortal fighter is able to contend with..

With a beautiful blade, intriguing backstory and now a truly amazing price – let’s see if anyone changes their mind about this blade.. The special price of $450 is available until the 18th of December. For all the details, click below:

Sword of the Yue Maiden

And so most of the specials are over for 2019..

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Here’s a few that are left (and info on when our store will be closed for the holidays)

The Black Friday -> Cyber Monday Specials were pretty intense. But as we get closer to Christmas, as we recommend in the Christmas Sword Buyers Guide – the longer you leave it, the greater the chances of having all kinds of issues – from no time to do an exchanges or returns if you don’t like what you get, too many parcels in the system causing damaged and lost products, etc, etc, etc (read the article to get the full story)..

As such, the time for special offers is coming to a close for us, especially as we will be closing a little earlier than usual this year (and opening a little later) due to a pending trip to Japan to visit my daughter and also to take a side trip to spend several days with a genuine Japanese Master Smith (which I wrote about in this months issue of the Sword Buyers Digest – click here if you didn’t read it).

So first off, here is a heads up on our official ‘store holiday schedule’:

Closed from Friday the 20th of December to Monday the 13th of January 2020

During this time, orders can still be placed and there will be a skeleton crew processing some orders – but customer service support will be limited and/or extremely slow during this period as we are officially closed (but like I said, a skeleton crew will be in place and I will also be checking in whenever I have the opportunity).

In the meantime, while the BIG sales for 2019 may be over and done with, we have decided to keep a couple of special offers going just a little bit longer, and introduce a new one..

First off, it sounds like a nightmare or groundhog day gone horribly wrong, but Cyber Monday will last all the way until this Friday for one special deal – the $179.99 O-Katana offer by Ryujin!

OFFER EXTENDED UNTIL FRIDAY

CRAZY PRICE ON A SOLID SWORD

And then a brand new offer for fans of solid, practical no-nonsense blades – a crazy price where we aren’t even sure if we will make $2-3 per sale on the Renshu Katana by Hanwei.

The blade is the same monotempered 5160 Shobu Zukuri style as the more expensive Raptor series, but with simpler fittings and a lower price tag.. $400 over at Cas Iberia, but less than HALF PRICE until the 18th of December and while stocks last for just $199.99..

In the coming days and last few weeks leading up to the holidays there may be a few more deals here and there – and with the clock ticking away, each one is set up to try and make sure it gets there on time for Christmas. So don’t miss out..

More Black Friday Deals: Ryujin Swords

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Our friends at Ryujin Swords have come through in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday with not one but THREE hot deals brought back from the past – which is no mean feat considering the pricing pressure coming down hard on the entire industry..

Chances are you will NEVER see deals like this again – so each of these special offers deserves a very close look..

Special Offer # 1

Ryujin T10 Custom Katana – Mother of Pearl Elite Saya

A true classic deal – available with red or black tsuka with brass fittings and the stunning mother of pearl inlaid saya valued at around $100 by itself and you have a real bargain right here.

Just $229.99

Special Offer # 2

Ryujin T10 Katana – Black Crane with Rattan Wrapped Buffalo Horn Saya

A complete package in standard ‘Banzashi regulation’ style fittings – the Black Crane is a complete bargain, both due to the base price and the fact that it comes with a rather expensive rattan wrapped saya with buffalo horn kurikata..

Just $179.99

BUT WE HAVE SAVED THE BEST DEAL FOR LAST..

Special Offer # 3

Ryujin CYBER MONDAY Custom O-Katana Special

It might say Cyber Monday on the box, but like the rest of these deals it is available UNTIL midnight Cyber Monday. But the value for money on this deal is completely off the charts..

For a start, you get a whole lot of blade for your money – 33″ of differentially hardened T10 tool steel. But you also get every tsuka and saya custom option, your choice of either a Musashi tsuba or a Crane tsuba and it even comes with an O-Katana display box that we normally sell here in the store for $29.99 for FREE (which makes it a really nice gift package).

And the price? (it’s not a typo)…

Just $179.99

Enjoy!

Black Friday Deals Starting NOW!

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Round 2 of the 15% off coupon code and 25% off 8 new swords from a new forge as part of Forge Direct Chinese!

To say it has been a busy week is an understatement.. But I hope that you will agree that it has been worth all the preparation, and it’s not all done quite yet (if you think it looks busy on the surface you should see how insanely busy things are on the inside! We have more irons in the fire than we know what to do with almost..!).

Anyway, before I ramble on too much – let’s get to the crux of this post because it is now BLACK FRIDAY and the deals are coming in hard and fast..

First up, and this one surprised me, Cas Iberia are running a second round of heavy discounts on 4 major brands – 15% off EVERYTHING they make using the coupon code below:

Hanwei Forge (Paul Chen)

Kingston Arms

Dragon King

A.P.O.C.

And don’t forget, order 3 swords at the same time and you also get FREE SHIPPING.

But the next big release is that our success with Forge Direct has attracted one of, if not THE premium forge for traditional Master Smith crafted Chinese Swords – established in 1956 and were selected to craft the four swords gifted to president Nixon in 1972 – the Baojian Forge (with over 50 smiths, including several rank 1 master smiths, and 200 workers – it’s no small fly by night operation!).

And the best part, we have started our collaboration with 8 new swords, 6 of which are actually available ex-stock and can be shipped in time for Christmas, with a massive 25% introductory discount until midnight the 3rd of December..!

I have just spent several hours refining the listings and preparing the special announcement plus additional bonus deals for members of the Project X inner circle, so rather than introduce each sword for what feels like the umpteenth time – click the link below to see them in the New Products Section of the Store:

New Additions

In the meantime, just a few random high resolution ‘glamor’ shots of some of the 8 new swords available.

First up is the most glamorous and expensive – one of these was actually purchased by a MAJOR A list Chinese celebrity (TV and Movie Director
Zhang Jizhong) with a Windsteel blade and all Damascus folded steel fittings plus imported Brazilian Black ebony..

At the other end of the spectrum, a short bladed Tang Dao in plain rosewood fittings – only $450 with the 25% discount and worth EVERY penny and then some..

And for those of you who prefer a longer, more elaborate Tang Dao – check out this two handed Tang Dynasty Yi-Dao and its distinctive ‘chisel tip’ blade profile – ideal for piercing almost any target..

For martial artists and serious Tai-Chi practitioners, we have the extremely well balanced 9 Dragon Sword, available with a standard shiny brass finish..

Or a more subdued antiqued finish (though it is essentially the same sword, just a different finish).

Then we have an ancient sword from the warring states period – specifically a sword of the Yue Kingdom (which encompasses modern day Shanghai) and the tale of the mysterious Yue Maiden – a former shepardess who learned swordsmanship ‘play fighting’ with a supernatural white gibbon and who trained the entire Yue army..

And should you feel in need of some good luck, nothing will bring you good fortune like the ‘lucky’ Sword of the Heavens..

And last but not least, a real stunner and one my favorites, the Supreme Dragon..

Most of the swords come with the name of the forge and the name of the sword engraved on each side but this is optional – you can choose to forgo it if you prefer a plain unadorned blade and though it will delay things slightly, the forge assures us that they have enough workers and smiths standing by to be able to make these swords in time for Christmas – and as mentioned, quite a few of of these are available from stock for almost immediate shipping.

So to beat the rush, get the 25% discount and ensure you get in ahead of the queue, if one of these swords ‘speaks’ to you, NOW is the time to pull the trigger..

Forge Direct Chinese

More Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals coming soon – so stay tuned! It is going to be a long and busy weekend that is for sure..

P.S. If you haven’t already, sign up to our store newsletter – there will be some deals in there that are NOT available to members of the general public – the kind of deals you REALLY will not want to miss out on. So sign up today and keep your eye on that inbox… (Project X subscribers, check your inbox NOW for all the extra bonuses and goodies you guys get).