Quick Updates on Batch 19 and 20

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Sorry for the apparent radio (but definitely not email) silence guys – as many of you will know we are a little bit behind on completing the final shipping of batch 19.
It seems like a rerun of what happened with batch 18, which is very frustrating as we though we thought we had the problem licked. But it seems because of the way we have our batches shipped in from China (by EMS air in separate cartons of 10pcs) again we got about 50% of them through and quickly into the hands of quite a few of you guys (below is a nice montage from a customer from batch 19 with his sword on the right), but the others have been much slower, dribbling through as we fight through customs paperwork and requests (as I am sure you can imagine, importing cartons of many different styles of swords attracts some interest from customs).
A Batch 19 Katana that will see some serious useage, that is for sure!
Fortunately, it should not be TOO much longer now. There are still swords being processed to out, and we also have a restock of the Black Dragon models that came in with them (with and without bo-hi) but I’m not going to list or sell them until we get all of batch 19 cleared up, so my apologies to everyone who has been inconvenienced (customs seems to really like the sword sets)..
Anyway, I’m working on a time frame now to get the last of them out – as I said most of the stragglers are through customs and now being inspected, checked against the original specs, repackaged, cross checked, labelled, etc. Of course, we like to do this the right way so just because we received them late doesn’t mean we want to rush them out the door as I am sure you understand. If all goes to plan, the rest should clear customs by the end of this week and will go out steadily as soon as they are received.
So if you are waiting please bear with us a little longer, I’m waiting on the latest overview report from my agent on what is where and will send out some supplemental emails as necessary to keep everyone in the loop.
Batch 20 is also soon reaching the first month post and apart from the unexpected cancellation of the H17 tsuba (which all effected customers have selected a different option) is progressing smoothly and due to the way customs has again pounced on our air shipping by EMS we will be looking into some new shipping options for this one (sadly they will eat into our already thin margins, but I’ll do my utmost to ensure that when we open for batch 21 in October it will not increase the base price, though I cannot guarantee it – these days it is harder and harder to ship swords overseas, pretty frustrating).
As always if anyone has any questions or concerns just shoot me an email and I’ll get back to you as fast as possible.
Thanks to all again for your patience. The SBG custom Katana are always a rather stressful project for me personally, but when I get delighted emails from customers who receive their own decently made differentially hardened blade made with some very personal, it’s sounds cliche I know, but it really DOES make it all worthwhile..
Talk to you all again soon.
– Paul
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Restocked and good to go

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Hi everyone,

The restock of our Cheness Cutlery and Ronin Katana lines seemed to take forever to come in, but I am pleased to advise that as of yesterday both lines have been fully stocked and are good to go (Cheness came in last week, but Ronin – which was originally scheduled for mid July took until August the 7th! But these things do happen when importing swords in large numbers).

A few quick notes on the Ronin restock – models 4 and 5 have been swapped around, i.e. the model formerly known as model 4 is now model 5 and model 5 is now model 4. The product names are the same, and there are no other changes, but I thought I should mention it to try and diffuse any possible confusion (though probably it has had the opposite result! No need to worry though, it’s really just an internal logistical thing anyway).

Also, stock levels on two models – the exceptionally popular Ko Katana and the model 4 (previously the model 5, argh – well, THIS one) – are not enough to last very long, so if you want to get hold of these you really do need to act fast.

Finally, they have also brought back the woodland themed ‘Morinokami’ sword (model 13) shown below:

So anyway, good to see that for the most part the store is pretty well stocked at the moment – and it is about to get a lot more interesting as the Prototypes for Project X are also in and being inspected, checked and photographed. So stay tuned, more news on this VERY soon..!

– Paul

Quick Update

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Ok, a quick update as to where we are at.

Now that batch 20 is officially closed and batching up to go to the forge we are concentrating on preparing for the previous batch 19 to land and be sorted and shipped to their expectant customers.

I’ll be in contact with everyone from batch 20 over the next few days, so really this is more of a side note here – in the meantime, the long anticipated restock of Ronin Katana’s Dojo Pro series is expected to land and be ready to start shipping orders between the 23rd to the 27th, and as these swords have been out of stock for several months now, I expect the initial demand is going to be rather intense – especially for the extremely popular Dojo Pro Ko Katana – which may only actually be in stock for a few days (they sold out in a couple of weeks last time and the pressure has been building on them ever since).

Too popular for its own good – the 1060TH Carbon Steel Ronin Ko Katana

 As such, if you are interested in this particular model and want to secure one I STRONGLY suggest you sign up to the notification list by clicking the ‘order’ button and then entering your email address to be informed the minute it is available to order (this occurs automatically on all out of stock products).

Of course, along with this incoming shipment are the two prototypes of the Project X Katana – so once we have the stats and some detailed pictures we will be offering this truly exceptional opportunity to a select number of individuals. So stay tuned folks! Exciting stuff ahead!

– Paul

And Batch 20 is officially closed!

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That’s it guys, batch 20 is now officially closed and my assistant Karyn and I will be going over all the orders in the next couple of days, tying up any loose ends and then getting the instructions to the forge.

I will email everyone who ordered soon afterwards, in the meantime – great to see so many new and original designs.

Once we have the forge running again I’ll be focusing 100% on getting the batch 19 orders to everyone (they are still in transit at the moment) so hope you can all bear with me.

Thanks again,

– Paul

The last 15 hours…

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Ok guys, as you may have noticed the countdown clock for closing batch 20 is nearly up.

To date, orders have been nice and smooth and we should be able to batch everything up within 2-3 days after we stop taking new orders. However, as the clock is literally ticking, any orders placed in this last period need to be pretty well thought out – in the first few days of order taking we can (and have) made quite a few changes to individual orders, but now that it’s nearly time to batch – and we DON’T make any changes once we submit your design to the forge – if you are planning on a last minute order, please make sure your design is 100% correct and well thought out.

You shouldn’t rush, if you feel the need to rush ‘something’ in I strongly suggest you instead hold off until batch 21..

I’ll post again soon after the batch closes, but yes – until then, please don’t rush!