Forge Direct Chinese – Sale Over and Product Line Mothballed

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Just a quick update – the forge direct Mega-Sale just finished a few minutes ago and as explained previously, is now archived and unavailable to order until further notice.

Our Master Smith has received quite a nice boost of orders to keep him busy when he gets back to work at the end of the month, and all the people who took advantage of the 25% discount special offer should be receiving their swords sometime in mid December.

For the time being, we have moved the entire selection to the ARCHIVES – but just in case this line never comes back, here is selection of the most popular designs from the sale..

I really do hope that this will not be the end of the Forge Direct Chinese Sword Project – these really are stunningly beautiful swords literally dripping with 2500 years of history and it would be such a shame to see it all come to an end.

Hopefully our modest contribution of orders from the sale will help keep the forge going long enough to see another few rounds, but only time will tell..

Here’s hoping that we will see them all again soon.

  • Paul

Two New Hot Specials

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From now until the 22nd of October, we have a couple of heavily discounted swords from Hanwei and Dragon King that bargain hunters may be particularly interested in.

The first is the Dragon King Warhorse Katana – a stunning T10 tool steel blade with real hamon that is normally sold from between $450 to $540. The price of this sword reflects the high standard of work done with the steel, below you can see a close up of the hamon showing just how smooth the polish and overall finish is of this piece.

It also comes with a unique silver habaki, menuki and seppa instead of the usual brass, and is completed with iron fittings in a traditional Samurai and Warhorse theme, real rayskin and emerald cotton ito wrap.

At $299.99 with FREE SHIPPING in the USA, this is an absolute steal – and with this discount – offers more value for money than any other sub $300 Katana currently on the market as it is NOT a sub $300 Katana..!

Click for more info

The second sword is a MUST have for fans of hard core medieval swords, and lovers of BIG swords in particular.

I am talking about what is quite possibly the LARGEST production sword currently on the market, the massive LOWLANDER Sword..

Pictures rarely give you an indication of exactly just how BIG this sword really is.. But here is a photo taken of SBG member Fatecaller (who is well over 6′ tall himself) holding the standard version of this blade..

Yeah, it is really THAT BIG..

Now normally you would expect to pay a small fortune for so much steel, and most sword sellers will charge you an arm and a leg for shipping (because as expected, it is not only heavy, but it is so long it needs a special oversized box) but you can get it for our flat shipping rate of just $15.

Truly a beast of a sword – the usual retail price on this bad boy is $440 plus $40-$60 shipping, but from now until the 22nd of October you can pick it up for a mere $249.99 plus $15 shipping..

Click here for more info

Get these deals while you can..

  • Paul

Blade Culture International Shipment Finally Landed!

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It has been many, many months in the making. Ever since my trip to Pangasinan, the Philippines back in March this year, I have been anticipating this shipment – four of the swords that impressed me most from my visit, now available for the first time and beyond my wildest expectations..

Here is a pic I took of 3 of the 4 swords during my visit to the Forge:

And here is a pic taken just yesterday of the swords ready to ship in all their glory..

As you can see, stock is quite limited as BCI is not a factory churning out hundreds of swords a month, but rather a bit of a ’boutique’ sword forge that specializes in truly hand forged blades that are in a league of their own.

So without any further ado, here are the 4 new swords in all their glory – in stock and ready to ship.

Click here for more info

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Click here for more info

Highly recommended, get in on these while you can as they take so long to make that it will be at LEAST another 5-9 months before they are available again ANYWHERE (we are the only authorized re-seller for these swords, you simply cannot pick them up anywhere else)..

Click here to see the entire BCI line up

 

Forge Direct Chinese 25% Off Special Offer

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Right now, there is a bit of turmoil for the forges that make traditional Chinese swords for our Forge Direct Project.

Earlier this month, there was a big shakeup of the domestic industry over there.  90% of the time swords made by our Master Smith are for domestic Chinese customers, usually wealthy business owners, who want a Longquan sword for personal and cultural reasons. But this month, the Chinese government effectively hamstrung the traditional Chinese sword market by banning transporting swords domestically in the mail and via any couriers…

It will not be until the end of October before the effects of this are truly known and understood by the traditional Chinese sword making community over there. And indeed, discouraged, our own Master Smith who makes the Forge Direct Chinese line for us has decided to take his annual holidays from now until October – meaning that any orders placed now will not be fulfilled until early to mid December..

This puts us in a bit of a tricky situation – and the easiest solution is to temporarily remove all Forge Direct Chinese Swords from our store until he gets back to the forge. But instead, we made him an offer – if we can work together to provide a massive discount on the Forge Direct Chinese line to make up for the extended wait period and give him a nice boost of orders for when he comes back, well – it would be a win-win for everyone..

So here is the offer – 25% off the entire Forge Direct Chinese line until the 10th of October, after which we will temporarily put a hold on all new orders for Forge Direct Chinese until the effects of this domestic shipping ban are fully understood.

Because the future of this part of the sword market is now very uncertain, we STRONGLY recommend that if you have ever had an interest in historical Chinese swords – NOW is the time to secure one.. How long a forge can survive when 90% of its business has been stripped away overnight is very much in question.. And while I do not have a crystal ball and am not saying that this will be the last time we will ever be able to offer these swords, that future is a distinct possibility..

As stated, the only downside is that work will not commence until the forge re-opens in late October. But the upside is the huge 25% discount – and the possibility that after this promotion – we may not actually be able to offer these swords again.. (like I said, this is not 100% – but it is very possible that if the forge is forced to change direction and make swords purely for export – Chinese swords like these will become almost impossible to procure)…

Click here to see the current line up of swords while they are still available

Custom Katana Update

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Just a quick update on the SBG Custom Katana for everyone – Batch 41 finally cleared customs and is en route to the sorting and inspecting team. There has been a bit of an unexpected hiccup – the swords were shipped from the forge in 3 boxes and somehow they all got separated and cleared customs at different times, but the reason for the delay right now is that 2 of the 3 boxes were sent to British Columbia instead of Manitoba, which if you are familiar with Canada is over 1,000 miles in the wrong direction..!

They are being re-routed and should arrive early this week – however the sorting, inspecting and shipping team don’t rush things and ensure each sword is thoroughly inspected for any defects, incorrect customizations and other QC issues before final packing and sending, so it is likely that the swords will not go out into early October.

As soon as possible after we confirm that the swords are all in, we will open up on new orders again for batch 42 – which will be the second and FINAL batch for 2017 (And Batch 43 will be delayed by Chinese New Year, so after batch 42 closes, the next batch may be 4-5 months away).

I will do my best to update everyone here as soon as I get confirmation that all the swords are finally in and the team commences the inspection process. In the meantime, thanks to everyone either waiting on a sword from batch 41 or waiting for batch 42 to open up for their patience.

  • Paul