It seemed to take forever…

Well, it seemed to take forever, but it looks like batch 17 is now finally dealt with – there are still 2 or 3 swords that we are guiding in but for the most part they are all in and the feedback is what makes it all worthwhile..

Emails such as “Your customer appreciation and dedication is something that seems to a lost art nowadays. My katana has arrived and it is beyond all expectations. Thank you and your team for all of your hard work” and “The tsuba and hardware are incredible and the color scheme on the tsuka is better than I expected! I really appreciate the work done here, it is without doubt fantastic! Can’t wait to ‘clear some brush!'” make my day and though it sounds corny, they make the hard work behind each batch worthwhile..

Anyway, from now on all updates will be about batch 18 which is currently in production, and of course the next opening in Feb/March (batch 19) – though stay tuned as there may be one more special offer very (very) soon.

– Paul

A few tweaks and changes

Just a very quick post, over the next few days and weeks there will be a few minor cosmetic changes to the store as I try to streamline a few informational pages and make some critical information easier to find.

Quite a few new products are about to be released for the FIRST TIME on the site over the next few days and weeks, so to say its exciting (and rather busy) is an understatement.

Don’t worry though, everything being done is purely cosmetic and in no way effects the functionality of the store.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know what is going on – get ready, the next update should be a very exciting one indeed..!

– Paul

Happy New Year!

Hi everyone, hope you enjoyed the New Year celebrations and here’s to a happy and healthy year in 2012!

Quite a bit going on at the moment (and lots more in store for 2012!) but a couple of immediately newsworthy things..

RONIN KATANA 1045 LINE

Firstly, you may have noticed a brand new line has been added to the SBG Sword Store – the Ronin Katana Dojo Line

While the Dojo Pro series uses 1060 carbon steel blades, the Dojo line is a ‘budget’ version that uses 1045 – but unlike most other 1045 carbon steel swords these ‘Dotanuki’ style blades are thick and extremely well tempered, resulting in a blade that could easily be mistaken for 1060 (indeed, a dishonest seller could easily pass them off as such and only a handful of experts would be able to tell the difference!).

Anyway, there are 5 designs in this series – 2 traditional ones, and 3 somewhat ‘anime’ themed swords including 2 with Shinobi/Ninja themed fittings as shown below:

Ronin “Miyamoto” Dojo Katana

Ronin “Okinawa” Dojo Katana

Ronin “O-Suzumebachi” Dojo Katana

Ronin “Black Shinobi” Dojo Katana

Ronin “Red Shibobi” Dojo Katana

All of these designs are available at a super low price of just US$174.99 with FREE shipping in the USA and come with a 7 day inspection period. As far as value for money goes, it honestly doesn’t get much better than this and I am proud to be able to exclsively offer you these designs.

CHENESS CUTLERY WAREHOUSE HOLIDAY

In other sword store news, the Cheness warehouse will be closing down for a company holiday for three weeks over the Lunar New Year holiday period, so the last chance to get an order in and shipped is really either by today or Thursday at the absolute latest, with all orders coming im after this time shipping after the 1st of February. So if you want to get a Cheness sword before the warehouse closes, NOW is definitely the time to do so..!

That’s it for now, though stay tuned – there is a lot going on behind the scenes at the moment and 2012 will see several long term SBG projects that we have been planning come to fruition!

Talk to you all again soon.

– Paul

Boxes finally made, tracking information to follow

Just a quick update for those customers from batch 17 who have been waiting patiently for the boxes to be made, even though they were a day late with it I am pleased to advise that the boxes are FINALLY made and that some tracking numbers will be issued to everyone shortly (though it may be a day or two after Christmas).

Thanks for your patience – I’ll be in touch with everyone individually soon.

– Paul

Delay on the last of batch 17 shipments

This is definitely extremely frustrating – the last few batch 17 Katana are stalled due to a very annoying issue..

While most swords have been shipped out, a couple of weeks ago we ran into a problem with the shipping boxes. As you probably know, the swords are shipped within a form fitting styrofoam box shown below:

The problem is that we also need to ship this box with an external cardboard box, but the company that makes them for us ran into a delay and then seemingly got overwhelmed by the general Christmas rush, so the most recent update we have is that the boxes will be ready by the 22nd of December..

To say this is extremely frustrating is an understatement, and while we have shipped or are in the process of shipping several swords that were intended as Christmas presents via Express on our dime to cover it, the last few are still stalled and all we can do is keep pushing this company to hurry up and deliver the boxes..

Anyway, I truly am sorry for this delay – we are doing our best and once all the smoke has cleared I’ll be looking at some ways to try and offer something more tangible than just an apology to everyone who ended up waiting longer than expected.

– Paul