Batch 18 now closed

Just a very quick update - batch 18 has just reached the forges maximum production capacity and over the next few days I will be reviewing each order, formatting them and batching them together to send to the forge.

I am still corresponding with some of the customers who ordered within the past couple of days and will be ensuring that all orders are properly addressed before we send them all through to the forge, so if you have an order in at the moment and wish to make any last minute changes before we lock them in NOW is definitely the time to do so.

I'll post again once everything is batched up and we are good to go - apologies to anyone who missed out on this round, hopefully most people were able to get theirs in quickly enough.

Got to get back to it - if anyone has any questions please email me as usual and I'll do my best to get back to you as quickly as possible.

Looking forward to bringing these cool designs to life (and there are some VERY cool designs in this batch!).

- Paul

Nearly time to close off

What a marathon..

I've just spent the last goodness knows how many hours making sure that each and every email enquiry for batch 18 has been personally answered, but as of this moment we are at 95% capacity for this batch so I'm afraid that there will be some people who weren't able to move fast enough on this one..

I wish there was something that could be done, but to accept more orders than the forge can handle is not in anyones best interests, so if you want to get in on this batch NOW is definitely the last roll call..

Now all I want to know is if there is a place online that sells shockabsorbers for fingertips as I am all emailed out..! (ouch).

Blog again soon.

- Paul

The official GO signal!

Wow, what a weekend..

Even without the official launch, the response to our ‘unofficial’ opening has been nothing short of spectacular. I can clearly see the kind of pressure that builds up for these swords in between batches, and I must admit I always took a little bit excited when I start seeing people's designs and corresponding with them about what they have in mind..

Anyway, the official launch is now underway – so please bear with me if you are waiting on an email response, I promise I am doing my best to stay on top of things, both with regards to enquiries to this batch, processing and confirming incoming orders and also coordinating the shipment of the previous batch (not to mention all the usual SBG stuff). So if you are waiting on something, rest assured a response is coming, it just might take a day or two longer than usual as I work through everything as systematically as possible.

Gotta go – I’ll be posting another update soon!

Click here to order

P.S. If you have been waiting to get an order in with this BATCH – NOW is definitely the time to do so. At this rate, we will be closing this batch off by the end of the week, so don’t miss out! Get your order in now..

Quick an unofficial update

Ok, just wanted to let people know where we are up to as the 18th has nearly been and gone and we haven't given the official 'go' signal for batch 18..

First off, the previous batch (batch 17) has started being received by my agent in Canada and he is opening up the cartons and beginning the sorting and inspecting period over the weekend. People with batch 17 orders should be receiving an official update on this shortly, but right now I am having some kind of technical glitch and cannot log into the store to update the appropriate files which is a bit of a pain.

Unofficially though we have 'taken the brakes off' and we are NOW able to accept new custom Katana orders even though the official announcement has not gone out yet.

I am doing it this way to try to ensure there is not a massive rush and we end up closing off before people who have REALLY been waiting patiently for this (i.e. people reading this blog!) gets a fair chance to do so as they sell waaay to fast for their own good. So for those of you who just cant stand the waiting and anticipation any more and are dilligent enough to check this blog - well, you can get in as an early bird now (it DOESN'T effect how soon you will receive your sword by the way - they all get made as a single group remember. It just gets you a high prized place in the batch)..

To everyone who is waiting for a response via email, please bear with me - I'm answering them personally and my answers are rarely short ones.. I'll get back to you as soon as humanly possible.

SBG Custom Katana

Thanks all,
- Paul

FAQ added

Just a very quick update - I've been going through and answering as many of the SBG emails and enquiries that have build up over the last couple of months and decided around halfway through, 'why not write a FAQ here'..

So here it is - the SBG Custom Katana FAQ

Otherwise, everything is going fairly smoothly for both batch 17 (incoming) and batch 18 (about to start taking new orders on the 18th of November at this stage).

More updates soon!

- Paul

暫くですね It's been a long time..!

Man, I can't believe that it has been two years since I last posted on this blog.. But then again, I have been doing almost all the SBG Custom Katana correspondence pretty much directly through the SBG private mailing list, but recently I've been toying with the idea of creating a blog and linking to it from the site as a lot of new visitors will have no idea what has been happening over the last 2 years, creating something of an information gap.

Anyway, I am rambling as usual - the point here is to say that the blog is back - at least for now - and I have quite a bit of news to share so let's get it happening..

Current project status

A quick snap from the most recent batch

Our most recent batch of SBG custom swords (batch 17) is currently on its way from the forge to my agent in Canada for sorting and inspecting before shipping out to each swords new owner, so while it is still a few more days before I can tie up all the loose ends and make sure this shipment goes out as smoothly as possible, the next batch (naturally enough, which we will call - er, batch 18) will be taking orders within the next few days so that the forge isn't just sitting around twiddling their thumbs.

Since batch 15 we have been offering some 'optional extras' to the basic $330 custom Katana design, such as folded steel, engravings, etc and this time around we are trialling two more - an optional battlewrap:



And also a cool black leather wrap option:



I've actually wanted to add a leather option for a long time but was originally told we can only do it on orders of 100 swords at a time, which didn't really suit the project of course.. But the forge was able to find a good supplier so I am really pleased to be able to offer this for the first time..

So anyway, we are definitely gearing up and while incredibly busy doesn't even begin to describe what is going on behind the scenes at the moment, if all goes to plan we should start taking pre-orders within a week!

As places fill up faster and faster each time the custom swords are offered (last time we reached the swords maximum capacity in a week) it is highly recommended to sign up to the news notification list here because this will be the last batch for 2011 and the next one is not likely to open until Feb/March 2012 (as stated elsewhere, it typically takes around 90 days from batching the swords until they are shipped out to you - but this batch may be slightly longer than this due to Chinese New Year occuring in January - an event that pretty much closes down the entire country for 1-2 weeks, so will likely add AT LEAST this additional time to the production.. We may not be the fastest option, but as far as value for money goes and reliability, I don't want to sound immodest here but this project has been going for several years now and just keeps on getting better and better with each generation)..

One more thing - A Sneak Peak

As you are probably well aware, SBG is involved in a lot of projects, and one of them is to showcase just how far we have come since I made the first SBG custom Katana prototype in 2008..

So this secret project was to recreate the original two prototypes I had made to see what the forge could do - the two swords you see tested on my site here: The original tests

Here's a picture of one of the original designs:



And here's a very quick preview of the "Dragon Claw 2.0"...



Ok, well I know you can't see ALL that much - but let's just say that the new design is what I would have made the first time (if it was possible back then)...

Only a VERY limited number of these are being made as commemorative pieces, and they will have a lot of the new upgrades that were offered since batch 15.. So stay tuned for this one..!

Time to wrap up this post as there is an absolute ton of work that needs to be done, so I'll post again as soon as I get a chance.

Thanks for reading.

- Paul