Probably too late for Christmas, but here’s a last minute idea..

As of today, it probably is a but too late to be doing your online sword shopping and get it in time for Christmas 2014..

Of course, it is still possible – but with the amount of parcels whizzing around the place right now, congestion is a serious problem and rush shipments of swords is one option that often ends up with broken scabbards, bashed and lost parcels, etc – which is why generally we don’t go in for it to avoid Christmas day disappointments..

So what to do if you have, like many of us, left your Christmas shopping to the last minute and don’t want to mess it up by ordering online?

parchment paperYup, why not order some SBG sword store – digitally delivered Gift Certificates!

You can order them from as little as $10 and they NEVER expire. And the other bonus is, you can let your friend or loved one choose their own gift and get EXACTLY what they wanted.

Because they never expire and because we are constantly adding new swords to the store, I would think they are the perfect Gift for Christmas!

Check them out by clicking on the pic!

Just Landed – New Katana and Euro Line by Ronin Katana!

Ronin-knight-blog

This is easily some of the biggest news for lovers of fully functional medieval swords – the new Euro line by Ronin Katana has just landed and they are something pretty special..

Over a year in development, there are 6 new models in the line up, with one handed and two handed models all priced at a ridiculously low $249.99 plus shipping (and the great news is, they are able to be shipped WORLDWIDE – so finally customers in Europe, Canada and Australasia can get a piece of the action without paying more than the cost of the sword itself in shipping!).

Each sword is hand forged from 1075 steel and tempered to perfection, light in the hand (the heaviest is 2.4lbs, which is for a two hander with 32.5 inch blade and 7 inch handle, scent stopper pommel and large curved crossguard, shown below).

The lightest, a single handed hybrid triple fuller blade with simple cross guard and wheel pommel.

Each sword also comes with a FREE bonus wood core, leather sheathe and belt suspension system for wearing or display and come sharpened ready to cut right out of the box!

And if that wasn’t enough (heck, how can it EVER be enough!) they have also introduced 7 new Dojo Pro Katana models, fresh off the docks and ready for immediate shipping!

These really are cool looking designs, some of the best yet – and while I can’t pick my favorite of the new ones, if I had to I would probably have to go with model 27.

Of course, the best thing about these new models are that the blades are identical so you really can’t go wrong, just pick the design you like the most personally without having to worry about blade length, hamon, etc. Tough as nails and ready to go!

Check them all out here

Walking Dead Katana – on Sale at the Store!

o-MICHONNE-THE-WALKING-DEAD-facebookI don’t usually go in for TV or movie swords much. Mostly because they are usually cheap stainless steel rubbish at massively overinflated prices.

But the sword of Michonne from the Walking Dead is a little bit different..

For a start, its a real sword – not stainless steel but 1045 carbon steel. Granted, this is considered to be the most basic level for a functional blade, but what makes it different is the extra long handle, ususually shaped kissaki, leather wrapping, fittings, shoulder strap and – well, generally this licensed replica is true to the original as seen in the series.

At $240 MSRP it IS overpriced. But we are selling them for $149.99 – pretty much the lowest price out there (better than ebay even, AND it’s guaranteed to be a true relica, not a knock off!) which might be a huge margin squeeze for us, but it’s a great deal for YOU! (especially if you use the Pre-Xmas discount code: Christmas – which gives you 10% off EVERYTHING in the store until midnight Sunday the 7th, that brings it down to UNDER the wholesale price and you can get it for just $134.99!).

Anyway, check it out – we have a fairly large number in stock but at this insane price point they are sure to sell out soon..

Click here for more info

Custom Katana Orders Closed for Chinese New Year 2015

Just a very quick update, a few hours ago we closed off on batch 31 of the SBG Custom Katana – however if we were to follow our usual delivery schedule, batch 32 would end up seriously delayed by Chinese New Year Celebrations at the forge in late January 2015 to February.

Rather than have the batch get delayed like this, we have closed off on new orders to allow the forge to concentrate on getting completely up to date up to and including the most recent batch that closed a few hours ago.

Updates will be made accordingly and we will be doing our best to avoid any delays to existing orders – it is theoretically possible that there may be delays, but we have factored the Chinese New Year shutdown into our calculations so we should be fine.

Apologies for any inconvenience to people wanting to get in on a new batch, but we think it is better to pause orders entirely than get a slew of update requests from customers who miss important annoucements, etc.

Thanks for your understanding, more updates to follow soon (at the moment we are finishing off on shipping batch 28 and shipping some swords ahead of schedule on 29, so it is looking good!).

– Paul

Crazy Pre-Christmas Sale Begins, well – now!

As you may be able to tell from the new header on the front page of the store…

Just click the image to add the discount to your cart!

Just click the image to add the discount to your cart!

Right now we are having our post “Black Friday”/”Cyber Monday” sale – 10% off EVERYTHING with the coupon code:

Christmas

Why? Well, originally we weren’t going to. As I have just told all the subscribers to our exclusive store newsletter, we usually simply cannot afford to offer any further discounts as our prices are ALREADY discounted and there really isn’t much margin in functional swords these days (stainless steel junkers are another thing entirely! Big money in that, but those of use who specialize in selling or promoting REAL swords don’t do it for the money, that is for sure).

Anyway, as I have just got through saying to my subscribers – the reason for this sale is quite simple. To paraphrase from the store newsletter:

The last few weeks have seen almost everyone avoiding good old PayPal as a payment processor, and as most of our suppliers prefer to get paid by PayPal I had a choice to make, either pay the exorbitant fees to transfer money from the company account to top up our PayPal balance OR give YOU guys the money instead in the form of a serious, actual discount!

Naturally, I chose the latter option, so from now until midnight Sunday the 7th of December 2014 you can get your Christmas sword shopping sorted, save a small fortune AND help the store out of an annoying cash in-balance..

So that’s the ONLY catch, to get the 10% off until midnight Sunday, you need to purchase via PayPal. The upside, you get a GENUINE discount (we don’t artificially pump up our prices and then use coupons to make it seem like you have saved money when in fact, you haven’t. This is a REAL deal on REAL swords!) and you pretty much are guaranteed to get your sword in time for Christmas.

ESPECIALLY if you order from the special list of Christmas Swords we put together, which are checked daily to make sure they are in stock and ship super fast (excluding weekends, but they will all ship out almost immediately afterwards, taking care of Christmas for 2014).

So what are you waiting for?

Enjoy the savings and apologies but we cannot of course apply the discount to any orders placed before this annoucement has been made or people who for some strange reason don’t see the big banner, read the newsletter or this blog (if you are reading this, I guess it doesn’t apply! But you know what I mean).

Happy Christmas and Happy Non Black Friday/Cyber whatever and talk to you all again soon!

Best Wishes,

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Paul Southren