It has been a NIGHTMARE year for Forge Direct.. By June 23rd we realized the supply chains had been DECIMATED by Covid-19 and for months and months, while halted all new orders, we did our best to work through the backlog.
We got a lot of really nice emails from people thanking us for the sword once received and saying it was worth the wait. And we also had some customers get rather nasty with us – and so as we wind up the last orders, at the end of it, we should see quite a few bargains for sale from abandoned orders (our official policy is that custom orders cannot be cancelled, but this got so bad that we had to abandon the policy for now and just keep on taking hit after hit).
Here’s a sneak preview at one of some of the unloved and abandoned swords (many actually finishing up just a week or two after the customer lost patience and lost the farm)..
In the meantime, I am tweaking the actual listing to get us to Forge Direct Custom Katana 4.0. Saya choices are a MAJOR issue now, and the folded steel option will also have to go. Additionally, we have had to raise the base price because of higher (almost double) shipping costs and much higher costs at the forges as they need to pay their workers more as they leave the industry in droves.
Aaaargh!!!
We will keep you updated as we go.. If these swords were not so well made and not so well received, and I did not get those emails from appreciate rather than impatient or angry customers – there is no way it is worth doing. But we will try one last time, and if it fails – we did our best..
