MSRP is $500 on this, and considering the blade is 9260 Spring Steel and designed by Gus Trim, well – that’s actually an awesome deal just as it is! We do our best to sell them at SBG for $350, so we go from awesome to incredible. But every few months they drop down to $279.99 – like this month!
As much as I wish there was, there will never be such a thing as the perfect ‘internet’ Katana..
You can take quite a deep dive into the subject and a breakdown of the cost of all the parts, both large and small, over on this article below over on the main site towards the bottom of ‘How Modern Production Swords are Made’ where we break down the individual costs of a $300 sword along with what percentage of the sword comes from each part (each sword and brand is different, but this is a pretty good guideline).
But the gist of it is, for each part to be good, a lot of time and cost needs to go into it. At the high end, traditional smiths work all day with wet finger stones on a single blade for that final layer of smoothness.
But then there are swords were tradition more or less gets thrown out the window and over the years, some very cost effective and practical solutions have been found to make halfway decent barebone Katana for a good price.
But the new Horimono Collection from Ryujin takes value for money to a whole new level..
These are live, practical monotempered 65 spring tempered heavy blades (with false hamon for effect, love it or hate it, it is what it is) but they have several factors that put them close to that ‘perfect internet sword’ I was talking about at the start of this post..
Every innovation over the last 20 years in keeping costs down while still satisfying QC has been put into this new series of 5 unique and cool, very durable Katana with horimono engravings on each blade that some forges in Longquan charge close to the price of the WHOLE SWORD for one of these..
I mean, on a real spring steel blade – this kind of engraving suggests the sword is in the hundreds at least right?
Add to this real iron and brass fittings where nearly every other sub $150 sword uses cheap zinc alloys and wooden gaps showing from scrappy rayskin, loose or fuzzy cotton ito, etc, etc and these 5 new models aren’t just a nice new choice, they revolutionize the kind of tough but still beautiful backyard or dojo beater you can get these days..
And until October 20th, they are priced at truly INSANE prices considering what you get.
Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t perfect, for example some new time saving wrapping methods to ensure tightness and evenness means that you don’t get the much desired alternating ito wrap, the rayskin is synthetic (though it doesn’t repeat, look cheap and is actually sought after by some people who prefer no animal products in their blades). But the blades are solidly tempered 65mn Spring steel, and the engraving alone can cost $80 at some places and it uses fittings normally seen on swords at least two or three times the current price point.
Definitely worth checking out, and available in 5 unique cool styles so far.
The naval colored ito and sageo with trident riding dragon definitely evokes a powerful naval feel to it, but just looks cool in its own right.
I love the Dragon in this one, can just imagine it sleekly flying between trees as it hunts down its helpless prey and is complimented with natural brown themed fittings.
It’s mostly the tsuba, featuring Mt Fuji that gives this one it’s name, but also something about its Dragon resembles those painted by the likes of Hokusai, and the cool ‘Tiger’ themed black and gold ito wrap just makes this sword stand out.
This sword would not have belonged to a servant of the Shogun, that’s for sure. Square tsuba were outlawed at one point during the Edo period, and the colors and general style suggests this would have been the blade of a rebellious and Master-less Ronin.
Using all brass fittings instead of iron, it’s a classic black Katana that like all the others, is just an absolute steal for the engravings alone..!
Short answer – not really..! The Hatamoto II is also a monotempered 65mn Spring Steel blade – lighter and better balanced with the fittings all iron and hand made the old way and has real rayskin. But it’s $100 more and the blade is essentially the same steel tempered the same way. There’s a 1045 carbon steel blade in wood Shirasaya (pictured below) for $59.99 – but no, there really isn’t any sword with a halfway decent blade and fittings like this anywhere near this price point currently.
There are several key differences between the Limited Edition Ryujins and the Horimono Collection Swords. Engravings on the Ryujin series are slightly more subtle, but the main difference is the blades are lighter differentially hardened T10 tool steel with a real hamon temper line, use all iron fittings (the Fuchigashira in the Horimono series are brass, which still still VERY good is not quite as desirable as iron) and better quality hand wrapped ito with alternating wrap and real rayskin underneath. Plus the blade is about a half a pound lighter.
However, they are also nearly three times the cost, so just depends on what you like – durable and tough, or refined, more traditional and fast (and if you want one or 3 for the same price).
Crazy how cheap some decent blades are getting these days, only a few years ago you’d be lucky to get a basic 1045 carbon steel sword with zinc fittings for under $100..
For those of you who can’t get over synthetic rayskin, when you buy a sword under $100, a full wrap would cost $70, so they cut the leftover-bits into panels and slot them into place.
Panels were not uncommon historically, but ideally you want a full wrap to reinforce the tsuka structure, and if you put your biases aside for a moment lets take a look at a typical panel of a sub $200 sword and how there are gaps of wood showing because its so expensive to use, the panel is quite narrow:
Below is the synthetic version – full wrap all the way around for extra strength and a varied, realistic pattern that if it WAS real would cost at least $70 to the base price of a sword.
It’s not cheap and nasty looking, does the job better and helps us make this the sword the bargain that it is. And if that doesn’t convince you it’s worth it, let the savings pass you by..
Anyway, for everyone else who isn’t so worried about synthetics (but will happily buy a sword with rayon tsuka and sageo) – check these and other bargain Ryujin Swords out right here at the SBG Sword Store:
Just insane pricing for real swords with such cool features. But remember, the special pricing must come to an end on October 20.
It’s no secret that the sword industry, like many niche industries (and much larger ones too) is struggling right now. I used to report on it in the Sword Buyers Digest but it got too depressing and I did not think it was actually really helping – and the last thing I wanted to do was make it worse..
Anyway, recently you have already seen quite a few casualties. Forge Direct and Project X are about 1/3rd the size they were back in the day, closeouts on new items introduced only a few months ago – and not to freak you out, but it’s likely to get a whole lot worse..
Respected high quality sword making company Kingdom of Arms, made by BCI in the Philippines for Clyde Hollis is sadly forced to reduce his line away from the more exotic blades to more generic sellers as they can’t afford to tie up the money into stock that only appeals to a certain few people (but when it DOES appeal, it’s the sword that they have been searching for)..
These aren’t cheap, but they are made by proud Filipino craftsmen who are finding it increasingly difficult to continue their business, and no doubt in a few years time, these will all be as rare as hens teeth.
As you can see, that is nearly HALF their inventory going out the door at discount for the last time.
(Or just click it for it to auto add to anything in your cart)
And you will get one of the very last of these blades with a 15% discount.
Sad to see them go, check out the full range of what’s on sale (and what will be left afterwards) below:
It’s been on sale once or twice before, and always proved a popular seller to discerning collectors. Far from boring and made with a stunningly detailed and polished T10 differentially hardened blade with bo-hi, best of breed fittings and everything you would expect from a $949 MSRP blade.
But when you can pick it up for $537 until the end of the month, smart collectors know it’s worth a SERIOUS look..
Well, September 7th came and went and as promised we have deleted the Project X Choji Line, wished the four beasts Jian on its way – and we were supposed to do with one more model too.. But I just could not find the heart and managed to negotiate a pretty sweet deal…
But that’s not the heart of what this post is about and I will circle back to that. Because what I am talking about started in February this year: you might recall to Celebrate the year of the Dragon we pulled out all the tops and made a stunning Forge Direct Limited 10 piece collection called the “KuryuKen” with the Master Smiths at Forge Direct.
With many limited features not available on the normal custom line and priced so low that we might as well as closed up shop and gave them away – they sold out pretty darned quick (can’t remember just how fast it was, but it wasn’t much longer than 48 hours for 9 of 10 to sell and the last one, about a week later).
At the same time of this release, we also promised that while it would be the the first Forge Direct Limited Edition Model, it would not be the last. And so here it is, the second Dragon Sword in the series, after months in the making – and likely the last year model for the year!
As usual with these limited edition designs, there is a lot to take in and not a whole lot of time to think about it before they are sold out and gone for good. So here’s the basics:
Because of our special status with the forge, these limited edition designs get a lot of unique features that the usual custom line don’t have access too, but if we priced it out it would come to around $989 or so (stupidly low, it really should be well over $1200 but at SBG we try to keep margins as low as humanly possible) but the 10 pcs that are available are even discounted, and available at $899.99 with FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING.
But that is how our line will be, (I hope at least) cool designs with unique features and the best possible pricing for 10 like minded individuals out there:
P.S. Before I forget in my old age, while we quietly archived some Forge Direct and Project X swords not all that long ago, there was one that I just could nor bring myself too, especially after the forge saw it got a few last minute sales, sparking their interest in its potential..
I am talking about the ‘Sword of Heavens’ because it was a kind of demo sword from the forge to show what they could do and it’s so good we are willing to sell it even it it just breaks even because, well, it’s just so cool for $650
I don’t know how long either of these designs will be around for, so if you snooze on these, you definitely lose..
And before this post turns into “War and Peace” – there was one final (and rather large) mistake we made pricing the New Dragon Dao.. Several major charges were left off our pricing, meaning that the current price of $999 was way to cheap and it needs to go to $1,299.99 to cover our costs and make a small profit, while at $999 – well that’s a sure fire way to go out of business.
We agreed to hold the price until the 12th of September, so there’s an untended bargain for you! Sorry about that, we are usually really careful when it comes to pricing as our margins are as low as possible, so this is definitely embarrassing and once again costly at a time when we need to up our sales. But it is what it is, so until the 12th grab it at the grandfathered price before it gets back closer to what it is actually worth…
P.P.S. Don’t get distracted too much by the other details, the Black Orouboros is where it is at – but at that quality and that price, I’d be surprised if it was there for much longer..
(C) Sword Buyers Guide Limited 2022