Quick Updates on Batch 19 and 20

Sorry for the apparent radio (but definitely not email) silence guys – as many of you will know we are a little bit behind on completing the final shipping of batch 19.

It seems like a rerun of what happened with batch 18, which is very frustrating as we though we thought we had the problem licked. But it seems because of the way we have our batches shipped in from China (by EMS air in separate cartons of 10pcs) again we got about 50% of them through and quickly into the hands of quite a few of you guys (below is a nice montage from a customer from batch 19 with his sword on the right), but the others have been much slower, dribbling through as we fight through customs paperwork and requests (as I am sure you can imagine, importing cartons of many different styles of swords attracts some interest from customs).

A Batch 19 Katana that will see some serious useage, that is for sure!

Fortunately, it should not be TOO much longer now. There are still swords being processed to out, and we also have a restock of the Black Dragon models that came in with them (with and without bo-hi) but I’m not going to list or sell them until we get all of batch 19 cleared up, so my apologies to everyone who has been inconvenienced (customs seems to really like the sword sets)..

Anyway, I’m working on a time frame now to get the last of them out – as I said most of the stragglers are through customs and now being inspected, checked against the original specs, repackaged, cross checked, labelled, etc. Of course, we like to do this the right way so just because we received them late doesn't mean we want to rush them out the door as I am sure you understand. If all goes to plan, the rest should clear customs by the end of this week and will go out steadily as soon as they are received.

So if you are waiting please bear with us a little longer, I’m waiting on the latest overview report from my agent on what is where and will send out some supplemental emails as necessary to keep everyone in the loop.

Batch 20 is also soon reaching the first month post and apart from the unexpected cancellation of the H17 tsuba (which all effected customers have selected a different option) is progressing smoothly and due to the way customs has again pounced on our air shipping by EMS we will be looking into some new shipping options for this one (sadly they will eat into our already thin margins, but I’ll do my utmost to ensure that when we open for batch 21 in October it will not increase the base price, though I cannot guarantee it – these days it is harder and harder to ship swords overseas, pretty frustrating).

As always if anyone has any questions or concerns just shoot me an email and I’ll get back to you as fast as possible.

Thanks to all again for your patience. The SBG custom Katana are always a rather stressful project for me personally, but when I get delighted emails from customers who receive their own decently made differentially hardened blade made with some very personal, it’s sounds cliche I know, but it really DOES make it all worthwhile..

Talk to you all again soon.

- Paul

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