Jan-Feb orders ready to ship, but small problem with A2 ito color

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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

Status Update

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Ok folks, a few bits of news in the one post.

The first thing is that after some additional unexpected delays, 98% of the custom Katana from October->December have been shipped out and you should have received and email with the tracking information by now (the main delay was everything was inspected, sorted and handed to a third party shipping agent – who failed to send them out promptly! Naturally, we weren’t very happy with that – but now they are definitely on the way).

The second bit of news is for those people waiting for their Jan-Feb orders. These swords are very close to completion – with only 1-2 weeks before they leave the forge and start flying across the world to my agent in Canada. This means that, unlike the October-December orders, we are pretty much on track (I really can’t believe how long the October-December ones took, hopefully that will never happen again!).

It does seem that this project tends to stray outside of the optimal 90 days from ordering to receiving that we have been aiming for, but we are refining all the time. Speaking of which, the third bit of news is that as soon as the Jan-Feb orders have left the forge, we will be opening up again for another batch – which with several hundred people already on the Custom Katana Waiting List may not be open for long before we get too many swords to be able to fulfil within the allocated time frame…

Anyway, everything does finally seem to be coming together – so to everyone who has been waiting for one thing or another, thank you so much for your patience. I have definitely been doing my best, and this is most certainly a very time consuming project, but oh so worth it when I read the feedback from customers who receive their own, one of a kind differentially hardened T-10 steel Katana for around the $300 mark…

Thanks again everyone,

Paul Southren

Finally!

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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

Shipping has commenced

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Sorry it took so long to get to this stage, but I am pleased to let you know that we have finally started shipping the swords out from the forge after pre-inspection.

We had some delays with the shipping boxes and it seems that some of you will be receiving them in the old style ‘display boxes’ and others may be getting them with the new form fitted styrofoam, wont know for sure who will be getting what yet until they arrive at my Canada agent for a final inspection and shipping.

Hopefully customs will not delay our airfreight shipments too much, my Canadian agent will be doing everything possible to get them through so we can get them out as I know some of you have been waiting 2 months more than the originally stated delivery time, and trust me, this has caused me considerable stress as I pride myself on taking my responsibilities very seriously and to say that it is frustrating is no exaggeration.

Because of this, I haven’t taken any new orders for some time – getting these orders cleared is my top priority! For casual readers of this blog though, I have created a ‘notification list’ where you can sign up to be notified by email when we have things back under control again here:

Custom Katana Notification List

Finally, for those people who placed an order in mid-January to early February – your swords are still on track for delivery in May. I will most certainly close off on taking any new orders any time close to new years though (both occidental and oriental) – that is for sure…

So apologies again to those people who have been patiently waiting, I assure you that your orders have definitely NOT been forgotten and I will be in contact with you again soon once your sword comes in, has been inspected, and is shipped out to you with the relevant tracking information. But in the meantime, as always, any questions or concerns please contact me directly.

Sincerely,

Paul Southren

All mounted up and nearly ready to go

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Hey guys,

Some good news, the swords are all mounted up and good to go!

After so many delays with this batch, from halting production to fine tune our procedures, New Year holidays (both Gregorian and Lunar!) and a whole heap of messing around trying to get them moving fast – but not so fast that the quality was compromised, I feel very relieved to have reached this stage.

To be perfectly honest, the pressure of meeting my obligations to you guys who ordered it and sorting out these teething troubles had me seriously reconsidering the whole project and it has taken quite a toll as I am the kind of person who takes my responsibilities VERY seriously. But seeing some of the pics of the finished swords from the forge makes me feel it is all worthwhile…

Have a bit of a look, maybe you’ll see YOUR design!!

Definitely looking good: I am sure that you’ll find them to be worth the wait (though I do admit, I still feel very bad about how long this batch has taken compared to the first one, but we are getting better and smoother!).

The only thing holding us back now is that we decided to change the shipping boxes.

Instead of the usual ‘display boxes’ which look good, but sometimes fail to properly protect the swords while in transit, we decided to use a tight form fitting sytrofoam case boxed in cardboard:

This will slow things down just a little as each one has been cut, but I think it is better in the long run to avoid shipping damage and keep all the fittings nice and tight and avoiding exposure.

So please bear with us just a little longer, and rest assured that we are now doing everything possible to get these swords out to you within a reasonable time frame.

More updates to follow soon, and as always if you have any direct questions or concerns just drop me a line.

Paul Southren