SBG Sword Store Blog

Man, I can’t believe that it has been two years since I last posted on this blog.. But then again, I have been doing almost all the SBG Custom Katana correspondence pretty much directly through the SBG private mailing list, but recently I’ve been toying with the idea of creating a blog and linking to it from the site as a lot of new visitors will have no idea what has been happening over the last 2 years, creating something of an information gap.

Anyway, I am rambling as usual – the point here is to say that the blog is back – at least for now – and I have quite a bit of news to share so let’s get it happening..

Current project status

Our most recent batch of SBG custom swords (batch 17) is currently on its way from the forge to my agent in Canada for sorting and inspecting before shipping out to each swords new owner, so while it is still a few more days before I can tie up all the loose ends and make sure this shipment goes out as smoothly as possible, the next batch (naturally enough, which we will call – er, batch 18) will be taking orders within the next few days so that the forge isn’t just sitting around twiddling their thumbs.

Since batch 15 we have been offering some ‘optional extras’ to the basic $330 custom Katana design, such as folded steel, engravings, etc and this time around we are trialling two more – an optional battlewrap:

And also a cool black leather wrap option:

I’ve actually wanted to add a leather option for a long time but was originally told we can only do it on orders of 100 swords at a time, which didn’t really suit the project of course.. But the forge was able to find a good supplier so I am really pleased to be able to offer this for the first time..

So anyway, we are definitely gearing up and while incredibly busy doesn’t even begin to describe what is going on behind the scenes at the moment, if all goes to plan we should start taking pre-orders within a week!

As places fill up faster and faster each time the custom swords are offered (last time we reached the swords maximum capacity in a week) it is highly recommended to sign up to the news notification list here because this will be the last batch for 2011 and the next one is not likely to open until Feb/March 2012 (as stated elsewhere, it typically takes around 90 days from batching the swords until they are shipped out to you – but this batch may be slightly longer than this due to Chinese New Year occuring in January – an event that pretty much closes down the entire country for 1-2 weeks, so will likely add AT LEAST this additional time to the production.. We may not be the fastest option, but as far as value for money goes and reliability, I don’t want to sound immodest here but this project has been going for several years now and just keeps on getting better and better with each generation)..

One more thing – A Sneak Peak

As you are probably well aware, SBG is involved in a lot of projects, and one of them is to showcase just how far we have come since I made the first SBG custom Katana prototype in 2008..

So this secret project was to recreate the original two prototypes I had made to see what the forge could do – the two swords you see tested on my site here: The original tests

Here’s a picture of one of the original designs:

And here’s a very quick preview of the “Dragon Claw 2.0″…

Ok, well I know you can’t see ALL that much – but let’s just say that the new design is what I would have made the first time (if it was possible back then)…

Only a VERY limited number of these are being made as commemorative pieces, and they will have a lot of the new upgrades that were offered since batch 15.. So stay tuned for this one..!

Time to wrap up this post as there is an absolute ton of work that needs to be done, so I’ll post again as soon as I get a chance.

Thanks for reading.

– Paul

Hey folks,

Thanks for your patience – I am pleased to let you know that the orders received in January and February have all finally been completed and are being packed to ship out from the forge within the next couple of days.

They are still a couple of weeks away from delivery as they still have to be sent to by agent in Canada by air, clear customs and then be sorted and inspected for final delivery, but we will do everything we can to ensure that it all moves along as smoothly as possible.

The only problem we found is with people who ordered swords with the A2 ito color (and if you can’t remember, I’ve let you know in the email I sent you if you are effected or not) – but for everyone else, I’ll be in touch with tracking numbers soon. But for people who ordered A2 email, please read below for a situation report.

A2 Ito Problem

The big problem is that the A2 ito color in the original stock photos doesn’t really look anything like what it turns out to look like in real life.

Here’s a pic of the A2 ito from the Custom Katana design page:

And here is what it looks like in ‘real life’:

As you can see, what at first looks like a nice golden ito turns out to be a rather pumpkin colored orange… Some people might like this sure, but if you were expecting the original ito color shown in the stock photos, you might be in for a bit of a shock…!

Anyway, to rectify this the forge has been scrambling to find something that better suits the stock photos (which really is more a fault of the component supplier than the forge) and we have come up with three alternative ito colors…

The first one is truly quite golden – which I call selection one, looks especially nice with a black same background I think:

SELECTION ONE

The other two still look a little orangey, but not as much as the original color:

SELECTION TWO:

SELECTION THREE:

Anyway, please have a look at the selections above and let me know as soon as possible what ito color you would prefer. Of course, you can still select the A2 ito color as shown above or any of the other ito colors from the original Custom Katana Selection here – but please confirm your selection as soon as possible as I’ve had to hold back these particular A2 swords out of the shipment rather than have them come in and lead to surprise or disappointment.

Sincerely,

Paul Southren

Thanks for bearing with me guys.

I am pleased to let those of you who have been so patiently waiting for your swords since October to December, they have finally cleared customs and are with my agent in Canada being sorted for delivery very early next week..! (I’ll be in touch with you all individually soon, so look out for my next email!).

The good news is that it looks like the QC policies that we implemented that were partly responsible for this slowdown were well worth it, as he reports that the quality overall is even better than the very first swords (one of the first ones pictured below)

So hopefully it has been worth the extra wait to you all (though again, I apologize for how long it took).

The other current Jan-Feb orders are progressing along nicely, and that means that very soon, to all the people who have joined the Custom Katana Waiting List that once I am certain that it’s all going smoothly, we will be again opening up for new orders.

Be in touch again VERY soon (and I must admit, I do feel very relieved that they are finally here, the pressure and responsibility has weighed heavily on me as I don’t take the trust you put in our store buying these lightly!), but as always should you have any specific concerns not addressed here just let me know.

And happy Easter too!

Paul Southren