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Just a very quick post, over the next few days and weeks there will be a few minor cosmetic changes to the store as I try to streamline a few informational pages and make some critical information easier to find.

Quite a few new products are about to be released for the FIRST TIME on the site over the next few days and weeks, so to say its exciting (and rather busy) is an understatement.

Don’t worry though, everything being done is purely cosmetic and in no way effects the functionality of the store.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know what is going on – get ready, the next update should be a very exciting one indeed..!

– Paul

Hi everyone, hope you enjoyed the New Year celebrations and here’s to a happy and healthy year in 2012!

Quite a bit going on at the moment (and lots more in store for 2012!) but a couple of immediately newsworthy things..

RONIN KATANA 1045 LINE

Firstly, you may have noticed a brand new line has been added to the SBG Sword Store – the Ronin Katana Dojo Line

While the Dojo Pro series uses 1060 carbon steel blades, the Dojo line is a ‘budget’ version that uses 1045 – but unlike most other 1045 carbon steel swords these ‘Dotanuki’ style blades are thick and extremely well tempered, resulting in a blade that could easily be mistaken for 1060 (indeed, a dishonest seller could easily pass them off as such and only a handful of experts would be able to tell the difference!).

Anyway, there are 5 designs in this series – 2 traditional ones, and 3 somewhat ‘anime’ themed swords including 2 with Shinobi/Ninja themed fittings as shown below:

All of these designs are available at a super low price of just US$174.99 with FREE shipping in the USA and come with a 7 day inspection period. As far as value for money goes, it honestly doesn’t get much better than this and I am proud to be able to exclsively offer you these designs.

CHENESS CUTLERY WAREHOUSE HOLIDAY

In other sword store news, the Cheness warehouse will be closing down for a company holiday for three weeks over the Lunar New Year holiday period, so the last chance to get an order in and shipped is really either by today or Thursday at the absolute latest, with all orders coming im after this time shipping after the 1st of February. So if you want to get a Cheness sword before the warehouse closes, NOW is definitely the time to do so..!

That’s it for now, though stay tuned – there is a lot going on behind the scenes at the moment and 2012 will see several long term SBG projects that we have been planning come to fruition!

Talk to you all again soon.

– Paul

Just a quick update, the Dojo Pro Line has been added to the store and until the 20th of December you can get one in time for Christmas in the USA with free 3 day select shipping!!

Otherwise, I think that most of the other products in the store are unlikely to make it in time for Christmas, so if you are looking for a last minute bargain – this is definitely it!

Ronin Katana at SBG

Just a quick post to let everyone know that after a loooong time of running low on stock (or in the case of Ronin, no stock!) both Cheness and Ronin restocked within the last 24 hours and there’s some great news for both of them..!

Cheness are 100% restocked on their entire range of swords, including of course the infamous SGC Yamakami Katana (which has been out of stock for perhaps 5 months?) and one of my favorite traditional Katana of all time, the Kaze Katana (which I think has been out of stock around 2 months)..

They also have introduced the choice of a bo-hi or no-hi (solid bodied blade) on their range of Tenchi Ko Katana and the Tenchi Wakizashi so now you can get a Tenchi Daisho set (full length Katana and matching shortsword) in whichever configuration you prefer.

At the same time, Ronin Katana have their entire range back in stock with the NEW swords that I mentioned starting to be listed within the next 24-48 hours, though for now the super cool Ko Katana and the O-Katana (pictured below) have been listed, and of course models 1-7 are finally back in stock..! (its been a looong while, maybe 6 months!).

It seems that the Ronin swords are getting even BETTER than ever, with much better kissaki shaping and sharpness than ever before. You can see what we have so far here (more swords being added shortly).

While it is a bit disappointing that these swords are arriving so close to Christmas, and as such may not be able to make it in time for Christmas (depending on how close to you are to the warehouses – San Diego for Cheness and Texas for Ronin) some models may well sell quite fast so it is recommended to get in over the next few weeks if there is a particular sword that you have been waiting for as the next restock will not be for quite some time (and Cheness in particular will be closing their warehouse for 3 weeks in mid-January for a much deserved vacation, so the sooner you get an order in the better).

Another update coming soon but it’s definitely nice to have some stock again as I really was starting to feel like mother hubbard there for a bit..!

– Paul

Things have been SOOOO busy the last couple of weeks that while there has been a lot going on, I simply haven’t had time to update it all properly! But as there have been some very newsworthy things going on, an update is defintely due..!

First off, we are now completely out of stock on the Dojo Pro Katana – however even though it will be too late for anyone who wants one of these to give (or indeed receive) as a Christmas present, new stock plus all the new models mentioned in a previous blog update should land sometime around the 15th of December, and if you saw some of these models you’ll know we are all in for a treat..

Cheness Cutlery are also pretty low on stock at the moment, with only a handful of models in stock but their restock should be coming in towards the end of the month (again too late for Christmas darnit! Lol).

But with all this talk of Christmas, plus the fact that we have almost zero stock of anything at the moment (as you may know, the SBG custom Katana orders closed quite some time ago too) we decided to partner up with Hanwei again and offer a truly amazing deal on one of their recently discontinued Raptor models..

As this unique model has been discontinued in favor of more generic designs, this is indeed your LAST chance to own what is effectively the earliest style of ancient Katana – in time for Christmas and at an exceptional price. PLUS it is also available with Ricky Chen’s exclusive sharpening service for an additional $59.95 – taking it to a whole new level at a total price that is STILL well under what it normally sells for (plus free shipping, and a free DVD!).

Check it all out in our Hot specials section here

And for those of you who are interested in something a little more exclusive, along with batch 17 we also received a special order we placed with the forge for some SBG exclusive blades – the first one has leather ito, a rattan wrapped saya and solid bodied, T10 tool steel blade as below:

And the second one is FOLDED T10 tool steel with real hamon, bo-hi, copper fittings with real silver and gold plating, and a battle wrap tsuka as follows:

Both are available on the main page of the store and also listed in the SBG custom section (for obvious reasons) – but you can also read some more about them and see some larger pics over at the dedicated SBG Custom Katana blog (which of course also gives you the most up to date information how things are going with the forging of batch 18 and final deliveries of batch 17).

Still have quite a few emails to get around to so had better wrap this up. Post again soon..!

Paul Southren