Probably our biggest post with the most new products and largest discounts EVER – with a few rather ominously appropriate for our times..
You might be forgiven from the lack of updates that not much has been happening at SBG. And no, it is not because of the Coronavirus – truth is we have been extremely busy behind the scenes preparing for not one but several major product launches and expansions..
And as the warehouses are still open and the couriers still delivering, not to mention how timely some of the new releases are (in an ominous kind of way) and come hell or high water, we aren’t going to let this thing stop us just quite yet..
‘Homeless’ Oddball products..
We already have a few ‘odd ball’ items here and there that did not fit into any existing category in our store. After all, our specialty is and will always be sharpened, battle ready swords.
But we also happen to offer, for example, the Saber Shogun Light Sword or items like this months ‘blade of the month’ the Boar Killing Spear by Forge Direct Chinese.. Neither of which are clearly swords.
And then we have a range of ‘short swords’ that come very close to blurring the lines between a sword and a knife. Take for example the extremely popular Ryujin Tak-Wak or the Wing Chun Butterfly Sword and you can see that it would not be so strange that, when presented with multiple opportunities to expand similar offerings at the same time, we might well go for it..
Now we already have a few Tanto knives here and there. From the cheapest $29 Ryujin Tanto to the occasional Japanese antique from Blades of Japan.
But as many of you may well already know, my friend Sam Sung (pictured left with yours truly) from Ryujin Swords is not just a word maker, but specializes in tactical and folding knifes with some truly stunning lines under the brand names S-TEC, Proleria and DEFCON.
So you could say the expansion idea was sparked when I saw his latest knife from DEFCON for 2020 aptly named ‘the Katana’ – because for me, it was love at first sight..
The blade is a 64 layer Damascus pattern made from 10Cr15CoMov steel and everything about it, from the Tanto tip to the itomaki style
6AL4V Titanium handle, was truly a fitting tribute to the Japanese Katana that bears its namesake.
Quite classy at $165 (but marked down to $115) – I also just HAD to offer this cool looking Kozuka style ball bearing action folder at the cheap end of the knife spectrum, just $25 from one of their other brands, S-TEC.
The move to add these two knives and expand a new official KNIFE SECTION to the store, listing all the existing Tanto and Daggers, was made all the easier by the announcement by one of our major sword suppliers, CAS Iberia, of a closeout liquidation sale from Russian Premium Knife makers Kizylar Supreme.
Click the link or the image to see what is on offer in this final closeout sale. But the expansion doesn’t just begin and end with knives, daggers and tanto (though these sections will be expanding their offerings in the coming days and weeks ahead)..
When we do something at SBG, we don’t do it by halves..
Until around 2 years ago (from memory here, so could be longer) we made the decision to stop carrying any and all unsharpened swords and training gear. But we had to re-evaluate everything when our friends at Darksword Armory went and outdid themselves by adding a range of high quality, fully functional wooden shields to their store.. Something I have personally wanted to be able to offer to the community for years now, but was never able to find anything decently made that didn’t cost a fortune.
Here is what they look like – basically 16 layer laminated wood with handle, strap and a satin print design on the front for $350. Check them out by clicking the image below:
Of course, the problem here is a lot like when you change the curtains in your home. Suddenly, the sofa doesn’t match anymore, so you change the sofa. Then the coffee table, and before you know it – you have a ton of new stuff..
Well, that is what happened when we added the shields – and so we decided to offer what we consider to be the best blunt trainers currently on the market by Kingston Arms – from 9260 single handed European swords to replicas of authentic training Longswords known as Federschwert (pictured below)..
But like changing the sofa, the coffee table was the re-addition of two synthetic training swords by Rawlings/the Red Dragon Armory… You know the ones.. (after all, we already had a Polypropelene Bokken)
And since we were going down THAT road, I spotted a few more items from the Catalogs by Sam Sung and found a few real little gems for super safe and super FUN sword fighting for the more casual enthusiast in yet another line he offers called ‘Sparkfoam’..
I mean, for $50, how can you go wrong with THIS? Lol..
A set of two latex, flexible fiberglass ‘boffers’ with a Deadpool style back mounting and plastic saya? And their medieval swords aren’t bad too – I mean how much fun would it be to go full power sparring with one of these bad boys?
There can be only one..
More to come..
Right now we are really only just scratching the surface of what we can bring to the table for sword related products like these. As always, we won’t be adding every single thing that we CAN – only products that we stand behind and believe are worth the purchase price..
In truth, we will be rejecting far more items than we will add. But there are some additional tactical knives out there, more very cool and affordable fun boffers by Sparkfoam, and more categories we can add for all manner of historical weaponry – as noted, we already have some spears (Japanese and Chinese) – so why not some axes, halberds, flails – you get the picture..
It’s not a race and we aren’t in a rush. Our goal is simply to be able to offer everything a sword enthusiast could ever want – and introduce new products that they otherwise may never have even seen or heard about (for example, that stunning folded steel ‘Katana’ knife by DEFCON..
LINKS TO NEW SECTIONS
Hope you find something new and exciting! It really is not so much a revolutionary change, just finding better ‘homes’ for existing odd ball items that did not fit any existing category, and expanding the categories with the kind of stuff WE would be happy to buy ourselves. Nothing more, and nothing less.
STOP THE PRESS – Last Minute Additions by A.P.O.C…
As a final piece of serendipity, just as we were about to make this announcement, the acclaimed A.P.O.C. series of blades just got a whole lot bigger.. And they added, yup – you guessed it, some tactical Knives to their line up – so if we had not taken steps to make a place for knives, we may have had to anyway..!
Here is the first two knives – both available for just $74.99 at the store.
Then there is another blade that blurs the line between shortsword and knife – a tactical version of twin Wing Chun Butterfly Swords (yes, they are sold as a set).
And who knows exactly how to classify this monstrosity..
Even the humble Kukri blurs the line between knife and sword..
But one that clearly is 100% all sword is one of my favorites, a tactical version of a Yataghan!
How awesome is all that! And especially as nothing here is over $129 – talk about stopping the press!
Oh yeah, and before we go..
Wait, there is more!
At the same time as all of this, we are also having a major scratch and dent sale on, including some premium blades with cosmetic flaws marked down with thousands of dollars of savings on offer..
Since scratch and dent items go so fast, there isn’t much point listing each one – just check out the entire lot here:
So there you have it – the reason why we have not posted for several weeks. It sure has been a lot of a hard work, but so much fun to be able to offer all these amazing new items to you all. Hope you find something new and something of interest!
- Paul
P.S. A QUICK NOTE ON COVID-19 AND SHIPPING
While some major sword stores have actually closed down due to the virus – our suppliers, warehouses and the various couriers and the postal services we use are still running (though are, as you may have noticed, delivery services are rather busy of late). As such, the first major impact of the virus is that shipping may take up to twice as long as usual.
The second concern is of course, being exposed to the virus when receiving your delivery. It’s Avoid direct contact with drivers (i.e. practice ‘social distancing’) and to be 100% safe, handle incoming shipments with gloves and let cardboard parcels sit for 24 hours before opening if you want to be super cautious. See the article by Fastcompany.com How to Safely Receive Packages and Deliveries During the Coronavirus for best handling practices, just to be on the safe side..
