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We just closed off on Batch 45 of the Custom Katana a couple of days ago – not sure if was bad timing or what – but we barely got enough orders to be able to justify sending them through to the forge..

It’s no huge surprise, in recent years despite holding the price to the point where we are losing money – the number of orders has been steadily decreasing.. And this time around, so low that the project that we have been running for the last 10 years was nearly cancelled..

While some of it may be due to bad timing, the main reason orders have been disappearing is because the eBay and AliBaba sellers in China have become more and more aggressive – and more and more dishonest – promising things that they cannot do or lying about the steels and processes used. And so honest sellers can’t compete when sellers take local pig iron and claim it is Tamahagane on a $300 sword.. (please, please – NEVER attempt to cut with one of these monstrosities..)

The truth of these sellers is discussed here – not all are bad, and it is possible to get a good sword, but it is a total crapshoot – with more crap than shoot..

We would not mind losing orders if someone actually stepped up to the plate and did what we are doing, but better.. But losing them to dishonest business practices is bad for everyone..

Anyway, apologies for the mini-rant – we will do our best to try and keep the project going and get the word out to people to be extra careful when doing business with these companies whose offers are too good to be true.. (its really frustrating when we know they are using cheap 1045 carbon steel but claiming it is L6 or 9260 or – whatever will get them the sale!).

In the meantime, as Chinese New Year comes to and end, Batch 44 should ship out and Batch 45, which is being finalized with the customers in case of any last minute changes, will begin. We hope it is not the last one – just the QC we offer makes these swords worth the price point..

Case in point (and a great opportunity for one lucky, fast person) below is a Custom Katana from Batch 43 that failed QC at our end and was not sent to the customer (we made them a new one from scratch)

What is wrong with it? This.

I don’t know of any eBay seller who would catch a tiny chip like that, tell the customer and remake the sword for them.. Indeed, THESE are the kind of blades they WANT as they can get them cheap (eBay sellers are always asking the big forges for their scraps, rejects and QC fails)..

Instead, we sell it at a huge loss rather than throw it away or try and trick someone into buying it as a new sword – and like I mentioned – someone who is quick enough can get this rejected sword (which has a folded blade with Kobuse Lamination and Leather ito with hishigami) for less than half its value ($299 with free shipping) – click here if you are interested, there is only one available of course..

Anyway, /rant. I will update you all again in due course.. In the meantime, please do all you can to get the word out about these dishonest sellers and don’t fall for their false promises. Every now and again it IS possible to get a good deal with them, but more often than not, you don’t get what you ordered..

Right now the SBG Sword Store is having a bit of a ‘mega-sale’.

If you read the most recent blog posts, you will see a ton of new products and special offers all happening at the same time, from the special price extension on the Seraph Aegis, to the 25% discount on all Forge Direct Chinese Swords, to batch 45 of the SBG Custom Katana – and much, much more (for example, the DSA Fantasy Sword closeout, Ryujin Daisho Special, New RK Euros, Custom Saya by Guy Gilchrist, Full medieval sword restock at Hanwei, etc)..

Thus, with so many great offers available all at once, we have called it a mega-sale, but the special limited time offers all end midnight EST the 12th of February – around 48 hours from now..

Check out what is on offer at the front page of the SBG Sword Store – the clock is ticking..

The end of the month continues with new deals and special offers – this time with a very unique and exclusive collaboration between Ronin Katana, SBG and a living Legend – cartoonist Guy Gilchrist.

You might not know the name off hand – but Guy has an extensive portfolio including Xmen, the Muppets (he is often referred to as ‘Jim Hensons Cartoonist’ and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – and with this special offer he will paint either a Dojo Pro Katana (selected from the classic models 1-3) or a Tanto (models 1-2) with a TMNT theme of your choosing (you can ask him to paint specific characters, a message, yuor name – you can have it customized how you want).

And the end result is a collectible and truly unique package unlike anything else out there.

Check them out here

We were hoping to actually be shipping batch 44 from the forge, however as is often the case with custom sword orders (or indeed, custom anything orders) there has been a bit of a unintended delay..

While the forge did their bit and shipped the completed batch out on time, it appears that our friends at EMS who ship the swords to our inspection team have seemingly gone on holidays leaving our shipment sitting at the docks in China unable to move..

It’s hard to get all the details at this time of year thanks to the shutdown, though we are trying and will update everyone here and on the SBG Custom Katana Batch Status report page

However, as the forge is shut down until the 12th of February, we had planned this as the ideal time to start taking new orders for Batch 45.. And even though we weren’t quite able to get batch 44 where we would have liked it to be, we can’t stall taking new orders for much longer – so from now until the 12th of February we are now taking orders for BATCH 45 of the SBG Custom Katana..

Despite enormous pressure to raise the price, we will keep it at just $429.99 shipped – so if you are tired of ordering inferior quality custom swords from eBay or Amazon and want to get the best possible product, guaranteed to be customized to your specs and to meet and even exceed your quality expectations – now is your golden opportunity (these swords are subjected to the kind of quality control usually reserved for swords several times the price).

CLICK HERE TO ORDER

The end of January is shaping up to be something of a sword sale bonanza.. Just looking at the most recent blog entries we can see new swords, restocks, limited edition offers, mega discount sales and now a special offer on one of the swords from our own Black Dragon Forge..

The SBG Black Dragon Sanmai Katana is what it says on the box – a T10 and 1095 carbon steel blade laminated in the traditional Sanmai style

The complete package – this sword comes with iron fittings, rattan wrapped saya, black leather ito wrap with hishigami – you name it, this sword has it. And while we priced it as low as we possibly could at just $579.99 with free shipping – it has not sold as quickly as we needed it to..

As such, we have no choice but to liquidate it below cost with a huge $100 discount – so now you can grab it for just $479.99 with FREE SHIPPING.

Only 9 are left at the time of writing this blog post, and once sold out we obviously wont be bringing it back – so if you are after an extremely traditional styled Japanese sword, this deal is too good to pass up.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT