Forge Direct Chinese New Year Sale Now On!

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It is that time of year again – the Forge Direct 25% off super sale is now on!

With price pressure pushing EVERYTHING to new levels, this might be one of the last chances to pick up these swords at these discounted prices (indeed, after the sale we will almost certainly have to raise the base prices, as production costs, material costs and shipping costs have exploded in the last year and are getting increasingly steep at an unprecedented rate)..

The only downside? Production may be delayed by 2-4 weeks from the usual quoted turn around times. But take a look at some of the gorgeous swords we have on offer right now and make up your own mind if the discount is worth the extra wait..

Some of our top picks:

Sword of the Ancients

Truly unique, this fantasy blade forged by Master Michael Ye is a work of functional sword art unlike any other. Normally $900 but available for just $675 while the sale lasts.

Cloud Dragon Willow Leaf Dao

It is an entry level Master Smith forged Chinese Broadsword – and one of the most affordable blades in the entire line up. At $599.99 it is a bargain, but at $449.99 during the sale it is an absolute STEAL.

Laminated Duan Dao

Extremely popular and affordable, tradition meets science with this highly innovative laminated blade. Great quality all around and a true bargain at the current discounted price of $622.49.

This is of course just the tip of the iceberg – have a look at the entire collection and see if there is something that you like:

Forge Direct Chinese

Hanwei Forge Partial Restock

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Our friends at the Hanwei Forge have FINALLY received a partial restock shipment that they had originally been hoping would arrive in mid-November last year – and have gone from literally NOTHING in stock to a fairly good representation of what they usually carry..

Notable restocks include one of their most popular and well made medieval sword replicas, the Albrecht II:

The truly beautiful Premium Quality Swedish Powder Steel made Bushido Katana:

And a true classic, the folded steel Godfred Viking Sword:

In addition, the master distributors of Hanwei, CAS IBERIA also restocked some popular items from Dragon King, Kingston Arms and even the A.P.O.C. Series!

While in most cases it is only a partial restock, it is indeed another case of better late than never – and though the landed cost has increased dramatically at our end, we have only raised prices where the new cost price is higher than our sale price – though price pressure remains incredibly high, so we really don’t know how much longer we can keep the prices where they are..

In the meantime, check out the following brands to see what the restocks have brought:

Hanwei Forge
Dragon King
Kingston Arms
A.P.O.C.

New DH 9260 Spring Steel Katana!

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Ever since Cheness Cutlery announced that they were going out of business due in April 2021 due to supply chain issues, it has been almost impossible to source a genuine 9260 spring steel Katana..

It is a notoriously difficult steel to work with – and so most forges avoided it, preferring to deal with 1045 carbon, 1060 carbon or 5160 spring steel (though that did not stop some unscrupulous sellers from marketing these more common steels as ‘9260 spring steel’ simply to get the sale)..

Indeed, the only other forge in China making 9260 Spring Steel blades is the forge of the A.P.O.C. sword line, though these are tactical swords and not traditional Katana like Cheness used to make..

But all this has changed with today’s release of the ‘Yokaze’ series by our friends at Ryujin Swords!

Yes, our friends at Ryujin have brought 9260 Spring Steel swords back with a vengeance – and this series ticks every box.

  • Differentially hardened edge with a very prominent, natural hamon
  • Same weight at the Cheness Kaze – 2.6lbs (2lbs 9oz) though slightly better balanced (6″ P.O.B. on the Cheness Kaze, 4.5″ on the Ryujin Yokaze)
  • Great quality fittings – cotton ito over real rayskin, matched gold and silver plated brass fitting sets with 5 different themes.

Overall, these swords are the complete package (and come with a free sword display box and cleaning kit) and amazing value at $374.99 – less than $50 more than the historical price for the Cheness Kaze ($329.99) but in our current economic climate with additional upgrades not seen on the original series, if the Kaze was still around the Yokaze would blow it out of the water..

If you are after a serious martial arts grade Katana at a reasonable price, the Yokaze tops the list – though as this is a trial run stock is limited..

Ryujin 9260 DH Yokaze Katana

Lots of Miscellaneous Items Restocked

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It has taken quite a few additional months than what we had anticipated, but once again it is a case of better late than never as we restock a large and varied assortment of swords, blades and training tools.

One extremely popular restock is the twin backmounted LARP Katana set by Sparkfoam – still amazing value and a whole lot of good clean fun for just $49.95

For REAL live bladed Japanese swords, we just refreshed our stock of the extremely popular (and still available at the special price of just $199.99) and quite historically accurate replica of the WWII Officers Gunto:

And from a much earlier time, the sword style which the Guntos styling is based upon, a Tachi – the stunning $299.99 ‘Daimyos Tachi’ with a hefty and ornately decorated brass saya that is almost solid enough to be a weapon in its own right!

For Chinese swords, we also see the return of the very affordable, meaty and solid blade of the Yong Lo Sword – still just $169.99 which is pretty insane value for a battle ready sword that looks like, well, looks like THIS:

And to round it all off, how about an ultra modern ‘claw in your pocket’ of the “Raptor” Folding Karambit by DEFCON – just $185.95:

Quite a wide variety of products back in stock with more trickling in as the year slowly begins to gather momentum..

Forge Direct Temporary Shutdown..

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With China soon to shut down all the forges for between 1-2 months starting towards the end of this month, and with a lot of price pressure on us that has been building since the beginning of 2020, we are temporarily closing down on any new orders for the Forge Direct Custom Katana 4.0 until the end of February/early March..

This is only a temporary shutdown to prevent customers getting frustrated by the long delays, and while there still are a few orders in the system we are still processing that may be impacted – we hope that the savings they made by buying it at what has become the old sale price of $779.99 with free shipping will make up for it because there is no way we will be able to maintain this price once we re-open in Feb/March (tentatively, the new price will be back to $899 – but even that is cutting it a bit too fine.. Only time will tell..)