A new maker of high quality Japanese swords.
Jul 14, 2012 22:30:42 GMT
Post by ineffableone on Jul 14, 2012 22:30:42 GMT
Jussi Ekholm wrote
As we here are the friendliest forum, I think it would be good to discuss even this new forge in constructive manner. Well I'll steer this (at least I'll try) talk back to Yao aka. Swordmaker688, as I think each vendor has a right to be discussed and people can give their opinion which will be open for discussion.
As we here are the friendliest forum, I think it would be good to discuss even this new forge in constructive manner. Well I'll steer this (at least I'll try) talk back to Yao aka. Swordmaker688, as I think each vendor has a right to be discussed and people can give their opinion which will be open for discussion.
As I posted awhile back ago, Swordmaker688 is not that new. There was posts about this vendor back in the SBG proboards days (2 years ago). That post linked them to Ryanswords, as did other threads later on in this newer SBG forum. The OPer of this thread contacted Yao and it was confirmed there was a link between Ryan and Swordmaker688, however Yao now states that they no longer have that link. Which actually sounds hopeful for Swordmaker688.
From what I have seen of this vendor's wares on ebay, they are mostly the same as most of the other ebay Chinese forge stuff, same flaws and weaknesses. However, maybe this vendor is making the climb up to a more respectable position like Hauwei and St Nihanto did. From what I have seen of the swords offered right now, they haven't made it up out of the jungle of ebay sword vendors yet but it does sound like they are trying.
I am not saying Hauwei and ST Nihanto are high end, far from it. They are however at the point where they have become known for dependable for a decent level of quality. They still have flaws that you tend to get with production katana, however these are at a level of acceptable for the price paid. Two years ago when I bought my sword from ST they actually had a bad reputation on SBG due to one unhappy customer giving a very poor review. Before that they had started to get a decent rep but that one review tanked them on SBG. This might be a big reason they changed their name from ST-Sword to ST Nihanto. Sadly a lot of the poor review seemed to be because of poor communication. A lot due to language barrier. The sword bought was basically a scratch and dent, but being held up against the non scratch and dent version in comparison. Now I think the buyer did not get full communication of the quality he was getting, and so was surprised by the issues. The owner of ST was not good with English and so had a hard time explaining what happened to the buyer. This resulted in one bad review, and people suddenly avoiding ST Swords even though there had been previously quite good reviews and experiences with them. They had had almost the rep Hauwei does now before the bad review dropped their rep. Then I came along and took a risk buying a $300 kissaki moroha zukuri from them. It took me quite a bit of looking around and testing opinions before I made the plunge, and a lot of what decided me was that they had had a good rep then only one review took that rep from them. I had plenty of communication before buying, and was happy with the information I got in the emails, being sure I was understood and so was the owner of ST. I was quite happy with the sword, and my review I think helped ST gain back a bit of trust along with the previous owners of ST swords who were happy before that one negative review voicing their pleasure of the swords from ST.
The reason I bring this up about ST is it shows how fragile a vendor's reputation can be. One poor review, with communication/language barrier problems can really hurt some of these guys. ST was lucky and was able to weather that, and seems to have learned a very hard lesson of striving hard for QC and customer service these days, even sending a free new blade to someone who ordered a blade but they messed up the hamon requested.
It looks like Yao and Swordmaker688 is trying to gain a decent rep, and it will take people like the OP taking the risk and buying these blades for them to learn and gain in reputation. I think we as a sword buying guide community should respect a vendor trying to get better. Though I would say a better reviewing of these swords with more impartial less misleading wording would serve Swordmaker688 better. This is not "A new maker of high quality Japanese swords." but it is someone making an attempt to break into the the Chinese katana market with average to a bit better quality. While most of the swords are nothing special, as in you will see the same swords sold a lot of different places, if you find something unique and really excites you from Swordmaker688, they are working at trying to become dependable, and might be worth the risk. Just remember, ebay or any internet sword buying always has some risk to it.