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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2011 5:14:51 GMT
This is more of a time-related question, not one of absolutes Is SBG still operated by Paul? I still send people there to avoid having to sit them and their shiny deathtraps down and have the 'sword talk' with people about their toys that every one dreads having to give. But as for selling things, what's happened since i stopped (if i ever started) paying attention?
Remember way back when when SBG was doing their own custom katana orders with some t10 steel or something? Are they still doing this? I see the old page for it and it seems to be displaying an upcoming date (this could be of course be a script to update itself and not be being done by human hands). And yet I see the options stripped down and see a lot of the old choices at proswords.com or something along those lines and selling the old premade styles Paul/SBG had, but with different pricing schemes. So what's the deal, are BOTH these things actively selling or is one/both defunct? Also.. how is/were the quality of them? Are they even relevant these days with the recent rise of different brands in that price range? I always wanted to exert some aesthetic discretion over my swords' looks, but don;t have the ability to do it myself, really. Thanks, -Jeff
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Post by Adrian Jordan on Oct 13, 2011 6:17:18 GMT
Paul still is administrator of the site. He recently moved to Japan so he cannot be as active on the forum as before, but he still stops in to post every one in a while. Both the SBG custom and Kuramono are still selling. The SBG custom only takes orders every 4 or 5 months, and quality seems to be the same as ever. The Kuramono still sells through Proswords, though they seem to be going through some moving pains. Quality seems to be hit and miss as far as any reviews or comments made here, and the price has gone up to $360US. Two of the big names these days for affordable customs are Sinoswords(aka JKoo Swords.) www.sinosword.com/and Hauwei stores.ebay.com/huaweiswordsBoth offer fully custom katanas at about $300. Both have seen a growth and increase in quality, though they don't always deliver exactly what you ordered. Hope this helps. -Adrian.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2011 8:04:37 GMT
Gotcha. I'm looking at sino and the other and they seem pretty nice and sino says they can make the blades themselves as custom works, which would be ideal if they can do it. (kamasu kissaki maybe? *hope*) Their other pre-made blade options say they can adjust the geometry pretty radically, so I'll look around for some reviews of their swords. I'm only a bit concerned with the crude english, which while I understand it, can make communicating the details of something customized a little murky. But it can't hurt to ask! Probably.
Anyway, thanks for that! Having something made to my tastes would be worth more than even a nicer piece done to someone else's, I think.
You know, Japanese smithed swords, while I appreciate them being so throughly controlled to preserve their art, I almost feel they push themselves into a kid of obscurity being so far out of reach for most people (though I suppose a sword being a class-driven privilege int he past, it fits to some extent) I think these little startup (upstart?) companies all trying to better each other and find new ways of forging better blades to provide more or what we want are the modern smiths of our day, moreso than the 'authentic' artisans we can't touch. Well maybe just me honking out of my hindquarters.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2011 19:48:51 GMT
as far as I'm aware, this has less to do with the unwillingness of Japanese smiths to make their wares available and more to do with the export laws about authentic Japanese swords, as their legal status as cultural art pieces makes it not cost-effective for Japanese smiths to sell "low-end" katana at anything resembling competitive prices. I may be wrong, however.
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SeanF
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Post by SeanF on Oct 26, 2011 23:28:29 GMT
To my knowledge they are also restricted to making them in the traditional fashion by certified smiths. So it adds a ton of labor time, and ensures it isn't outsourced to a cheaper workforce.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 28, 2011 22:46:01 GMT
Okay so, after reading a bit, I decided to try sinosword. they were very quick in answering all my questions until I finalised and paid up and they said basically we're all set, and we'll take a picture of it when it's done. Then said nothing more and did not respond to anything again since. Not a huge shock, but, though I was sparse about asking, this was placed in mid october and after trying to ask about it on the one and two month mark, no reply was sent. I know these things take time, and that's fine, but I get worried dealing with businesses for the first time. Does anyone know what kind of time frame do they usualy have for semi custom swords? I didn't modify it *too* much.
to everything above this: I know some of the nuisances of why they do that, and I don;t think it's necessarily a *bad* thing, but it *does* place them out of my reach
*EDIT* They've contacted me after I prodded them a bit, and took care of me. You just need to strike a good balance between being patient and lighting a few fires, I guess.
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