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

So far so good

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Hey folks,

Just a quick update on the orders from the 17th October to 5th of December – I heard from the forge that they have nearly finished mounting every blade and that they should be all finished within the next 3-5 days.

I was going to post this along with a few pics of the swords being mounted, however they were too busy actually doing it to take a photo, but with my next update (which should be VERY soon) I hope to include a pic or two of what’s been going on.

Any specific questions or concerns just send me an email as always.

Thanks again for your patience.

Paul Southren

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Hi guys,

First off – welcome to the new SBG Custom Katana blog! This blog was primarily designed to update existing SBG Custom Sword buyers as to the status of their orders, but also to advise when we will be opening up for new orders – as well as information on other SBG custom Katana projects in the works.

Anyway, the meat of this post is to update customers who placed their orders between the 17th of October to the 5th of December 2008 – because as you know we are running behind schedule due to New Years and then CHINESE Lunar New Years Celebrations, plus a whole heap of other delays and complications that we have thankfully sorted out (it hasn’t been the easiest project, I can tell you!).

The blades of all of your swords are now well and truly finished, and we are now just waiting on a few components to come in to finalize the mountings in your custom selections. But while we are waiting, I thought you might like to have a quick peek at what has been going on.

First off, the actual forging:

Followed by the filing and shaping of the blade:

And finally, the polishing and sharpening – all done by hand of course:

So now, all we have to do is get them ALL mounted up (some have been done already, but unfortunatley to be able to offer them at the price we did, we have to wait for them all to be completed before shipping) – quality inspected at the forge, and then sent by air to by agent in Canada.

This is pretty much on track with my last email update to you – but again, my apologies it has taken so long – I did not anticipate the disruption the holidays would have on production, or the necessary pause to help to the forge implement a Quality Control system to ensure that each sword had EXACTLY the same components as ordered (no-one has really done this kind of thing before, sometimes being a pioneer is a bit of a headache!).

But hopefully we will have them all mounted up in march and get them moving to my agent in Canada for final sorting and shipping.

Will keep you posted!

Paul Southren