Officially closed, but working harder than ever!

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While we may have officially closed off on the 20th of December, there are still too many emails that need answered, deliveries that need to be double checked and fixed and a ton of things needed before I can begin to partially unplug for Christmas day..

Santa’s Elves are proving no use as usual..

And so it’s up to me to give the year one last push to try and get across the Christmas finish line. And to do so, while at this stage we normally bow, out – this time we are offering two last minute ‘Christmas Savers’*

Both are from RYUJIN SWORDS and feature the classic differentially tool steel blades they are famous for. But the savings are out of this world..

First up – the KUROKENSAI (Black Sword Saint) which has a solid bodied blade, solid Iron Muashi tsuba and all black fittings.

KuroKensai $174.99

And the next one is the last few of a final closeout sale from the Ryuin pre-assembled series. While the KuroKensai is all black, the Yukizuna is it’s polar opposite – with all WHITE fittings.

$164.99 Yukizuna

Now because Christmas is only days away, international orders are out of the question. And unless you live very close to California, then it’s a risk to ship using standard ground shipping. So we have added an option for 2 night express for an additional $35. (No longer optional)

We cannot guarantee that it will make it in time, but this is your best shot – and the prices, too good to ignore..

P.S. Did you see the 10% discount on the entire Kingdom of Arms Series? There is less than 24 hours to go..

Check out their line up here

My favorite from their series so far – probably their Sword of Strider

Or the Gladius, Falcata and range of Knightly Swords from the Crusading orders of the Teutonic Knights and the Templars..

Well, time to continue my ‘holiday’ – about 100 odd emails to get through so will work through the night and see how we look tomorrow!

P.S. In an edit I noticed that in the coupon the sale expired on the 23rd of September 2020..! I meant December of course, shows how much I need a REAL break..

Quick Pre-Holiday Update

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As you know, it’s officially less than 24 hours before we close up for the year. It doesn’t mean that we stop working entirely, indeed we will still be on board for the week leading up to Christmas to get orders out as fast as possible and we may have a last minute surprise or two.

So as is often the case with SBG we don’t ever really take a ‘switch off all the lights and go home’ style holiday..

But just before we finish up for 2020 – there is one last addition I have been pushing for for over 2 years now for the Ryujin Custom Katana line..

BLACK ITO WITH BLACK RAYSKIN!!

Yes, that’s right – one of my favorite historical tsuka ‘color’ combinations, black ito over black rayskin is now available to use to make a dark themed Katana (or iaito)!

It’s only available on the Katana and the iaito series at the moment, but it opens up some very cool design opportunities and I for one am very excited to see it added to the line up!

Ryujin Katana

2020/2021 Holiday Schedule

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From Sunday the 20th of December to Monday the 11th of January 2021 the SBG Sword Store will be officially on vacation.

By officially on vacation, what this really means is that we will still have a skeleton crew working and I will also be checking in every few days to make sure nothing too urgent has popped up – otherwise I will be using the time for working on other aspects of the site (there is always so much needed to be done at SBG, there really is no time for a totally ‘unplugged’ holiday – not that I mind that much. I love what I do!).

Anyway, as we get closer to Christmas we are already seeing an increase in shipping damage and rough handling, so if you have not got your Christmas sword shopping sorted yet – time is up, you need do something about it now before it is too late..

As we get closer to the official store holiday period I may dig up a few specials specifically designed to ship fast in time for Christmas for anyone who has indeed left it to the last minute.

Anyway, hope you have some holidays coming to you soon – here’s hoping 2021 will be a better year than this one.. (would not be hard!).

Seasons Greetings,

  • Paul Southren

Shipping delay hiccups

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“It must be 2020” so I have heard many times when describing something that goes totally awry.. And that very much applies to the aftermath of orders from over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales period..

For a start, all of the warehouses we depend upon for shipping are short staffed due to Covid restrictions. At the same time, with many new orders to process, a critical piece of software we use decided to add to the chaos by crashing (and remains crashed as techs work on it).

And to make it a ‘perfect storm’ and top it all off in a way that is ‘so very 2020’, a key staff member who processes new orders was suddenly struck down with a virus (not Covid, thankfully – but it took her out of commission at the worst possible time and she is only now getting back in the saddle).

Add all of these factors together, and you have quite a bottleneck – especially after so many people took advantage of the huge savings on offer over the sales event weekend.

To this end, we are all doing everything humanly possible to get any and all outstanding and unshipped orders out without too much of a delay – but please be aware that due to the fantastic run of bad luck we have just had, delays ARE to be expected. But please rest assured, we are on the case and everything should be caught up by early next week at the latest..

Thanks for bearing with us!

Two new HOT SPECIALS in time for Christmas

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When it comes to buying swords online for Christmas, it’s really important to get your orders in as soon as possible.

We explain the whys and wherefores of this tactic in some detail over on this article on the main site ‘Christmas Sword Buying Guide 2020’

In a nutshell, you really don’t want an item that could be damaged by excessively rough handling that tends to increase the risk of your order being smashed to pieces every day we get closer to ‘the big day’ – but also, you want to allow time for any possible exchanges and returns – and trying to order at the last second is a tried and tested recipe for disaster..

NOW is the time to get your Christmas shopping sorted – and so here are two awesome new specials that should suit almost every collector.

The first is a simple and very practical Katana by Dragon King, the Warfire Katana

With a hard wearing differentially hardened 65MN steel blade, it is differentially hardened in the traditional manner to create an edge with HRC of 60 and a spine of 40, pretty much the ideal for a traditional Katana.

The iron fittings depict ancient Japanese battles, the silver menuki, a riderless horse, the black iron tsuba – Kumamoto castle in flames on one side and a proud mounted Samurai on the other. The saya is complete with buffalo horn inserts, and all in all, it is a very well made sword at a extremely reasonable price..

However, with this special – it’s a total bargain – the MSRP on this one is $499, our everyday low price just $359.98 But from now until the 20th of December you can get it for only $274.99!!

WarFire Katana

The second sword on special for December is a super tough steel sparring sword by Kingston Arms – and one of their most popular and cool looking designs, the blunt tourney hand and a half Knightly sword.

Based on a 14th/15th century Oakeshott Type XVIIIa.4, it is a classic example of a Knightly Longsword and using 9260 Spring Steel and their patented ‘King Peen’ system, creates one of the most solid steel beaters around..

Price wise, it is a true bargain at the MSRP of $259, and a great deal at our everyday low price of $189.98.. But until the 20th, you can grab it for a mere $144.99!!

Tourney Knightly Sword (BLUNT)