SBG Sword Store Blog

If you are going to make mistakes practicing HEMA (and when you are just starting out, you will by default make a LOT of mistakes) it makes sense to minimize your personal risk by training with an unsharpened sword.

If you look at some of the standard basic HEMA Longsword drills it is easy for a beginner to forget to move a leg back out of the way, clip their shoulder or thigh when performing a flourish or otherwise get injured by training with a sharpened sword. Just look at the video below and imagine how many accidents and close calls it would take until the level of speed and technique shown is reached.

Of course, there are already quite a few nice steel and synthetic training swords already on the market – and we list what we feel are the best ones right here in the training tools section of our store.

But today we are delighted to announce 3 new options for HEMA practitioners designed by Sword expert David Rawlings in the UK and his company, Red Dragon Armoury.

INTRODUCING – the Red Dragon Unsharpened Combat Sword Line

All of the swords in this line have several things in common.

All are made from hard wearing EN42J steel, tempered with a core HRC of approx 45 and an outer hardness of HRC50. All are styled forged guards and pommels constructed from steel, and wooden grips that are masterfully wrapped in leather cord. And all come with attractive wood core, leather bound scabbards including an integrated belt and suspension system that is worth the price of admission for that alone!

From here though, each of the three swords is quite different. The first is the most purpose-built, with a thick 2mm edge and rounded safety tip and is called the Combat Hand-and-a-half-Sword

The second, called the Combat Temple Church Sword, is the most ornate and is based on a 14th century Templar Sword found in the river Thames and features more ornate decorations and embellishments than the other two and has a narrower 1.5mm edge.

And finally, the Combat Bastard Sword with a much thinner 1mm edge. This is the kind of sword that you could train with as a blunt and, because it is made from good steel, can later be sharpened if so desired.

The MSRP price on these swords is $300 for the Hand and a Half and the Bastard Sword, and $390 for the more ornate Church Temple Sword. But as usual we have offered them at a special discounted introuctory price of just $229 and $284 respectively!

Check out all these are more in the Training Swords & Gear section of our store by clicking the link below:

You may remember a couple of years ago we released the ‘Saber Shogun’ line of hard core, fully functional bokken grade sparring light sabers at $199.99.

Naturally, they were a very popular product. But one of the biggest expenses in its development and final price came from the sound system that does its best to track the movement of the saber and make an appropriate sound depending on what it is doing.

Only problem is, every person will use a given saber at a different speed with a different amount of force, and there is to my knowledge no saber on the market that does this perfectly.

While they could spend countless hours and tens of thousands of dollar to refine the sound effects, there is another way. Simply REMOVE the sound option and focus on the light and the durability – and the price..

So instead of $199.99 – the new soundless range (which has the same super durable blades this line is now famous for) is available for just $120 for the special introductory price of just $79.99!

Three colors, Red Sith, Blue Jedi Guardian & Green Jedi Consular:

Awesome value no matter which way you look at them – all these and more in the ‘Cool Accessories’ and ‘Training Swords and Gear’ sections of our store.

While stocks are running low for many popular swords and sword lines, and Chinese New Year has seen the closure of all the various forges, workshops and resellers in the ‘sword capital of the world’ (Longquan, China) – Ryujin have restocked some of their extremely affordable and popular ‘off the shelf’ sword models with a shipment that has just come in.

The first restock is Ryujin’s version of a Shinobigatana (Ninja Sword) based on the living Bujinkan tradition – with a Ko-Katana (technically also known as an ‘O-Wakizashi’) mounted in fittings that suggest it is a full length Katana..

Exceptional value at just $129.99, it features a differentially hardened blade hand forged from 1060 carbon steel and is at once attractive, authentic and weighing on average 2.2lbs with a point of balance less than 4″ from the tsuba, makes this 23 3/8″ sword extremely fast in the hand..

Then there are the swords from the so called ‘art swords’ line – in other words Ryujin take the most basic entry level 1045 carbon steel blade, temper it, and then go to town with attractive and ornate decorations to create a line of Katana for beginners that aren’t the same old tired design..

First sword from this line restocked is the ‘Green Battle Dragon’ featuring green colored ito in a katatemaki (battle wrap) style with matching green sageo, green sakura engravings on the saya and a gold colored dragon themed tsuba.

And then there is the ‘Blue Geisha’

Which, if you cannot tell, is so named because of the blue ito and sageo with a stylized Geisha ukiyo-e style imprint on the black glossy saya.

The restock also included one of their wildly popular entry level Chinese swords – with basic fittings and strong, 65mn spring steel blades – the 65MN Spring Steel Tang Dynasty Two Handed Silver Jian

Incredibly lightweight, it’s easy to use with one hand, but use it with two as it was intended and it literally feels like nothing. And to compliment the Jian, there is also the restock of one of my personal favorite sword types, the Chinese Dao – in this case, a no nonsense practical looking classical Willow Leaf Dao

That is some serious value right there!

Last but not least, some serious fun comes back with the Chanbara BOGO sale. Buy one of these tough ‘boffer’ style training swords from Ryujin’s S-Tec Brand and get another of the same color free!

Chanbara Buy One Get One Free Offer

Great to de-stress with, and at $29.99 for two is a fantastic deal – plus exclusive to SBG, we not only give you a free one but we guarantee them for breakage in normal sparring conditions for 1 year to make sure you get your moneys worth (and then some).