admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2,114
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Post by admin on Jan 24, 2020 5:46:15 GMT
I will have to check but it was VERY recent. Is there a reason why, I do not believe they have moved but who knows.. I am hesitant about believing anything they say after the recent claim that Yu Wei Ping is one of their guys.
As to Huawei, they are mentioned in the article by Dan that has literally just been published on the main site:
If we just take our reviews, this is how the customer satisfaction rate actually breaks down for Huawei:
That is overwhelmingly Neutral with a lean to the positive.. Never mind that they have poor communication, but people seem to forget all that pretty quickly (there was a period of around 6 months when there was almost zero communication with any customers..! Or how about frequent reports of plenty of communication leading up to the order and then radio silence?)
The problems with these guys doesn't just effect you guys who get ripped off or end up stuck holding the wrong end of the stick (tsuka). It has washed over and effected the entire industry to the point where many forges are closing their doors and has even gobbled up market share in JAPAN - hurting sales of genuine Nihonto (after all, what's the difference between a $7000 Nihonto and a $500 Tamahagane blade? Seems like the Japanese swords are just hugely overpriced and the Longquan Tamahagane is where it is at? Apparently this is how it is perceived by many potential Shinken buyers..)
Long story short, a ban would not be unreasonable - they have used and abused the forum to get free advertising for far too long, and as we have no idea of the possible deals members might make with them to get a cheaper or better sword than they otherwise might if they just ordered without telling them what would happen to the product, it may be the only way to cut them out of the loop. Because I tell you one thing, I for one do not want to be part of the problem that is eating the sword industry from the inside out.
But for now, I just hope getting the word out about their practices will be enough.. (though I doubt it - after all, we all really want to believe that we can find a true bargain that no-one else can and are willing to take the risk. But please know that by buying from these guys, you are effectively poisoning the well - and when they have picked the bones clean of the sword industry, they will just move on to another product - maybe Longquan Celedon is in their sights..)
/rant (yes, I do get personally upset when I discuss these guys because I see the direct effects they have on the forges over there. Most of the guys we met back in 2013 have lost their jobs since, and it is only getting worse as these dishonest sellers get rich on the backs of honest folk who call 1045 carbon steel 1045 carbon steel!).
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Post by jackytheblade on Jan 24, 2020 15:43:41 GMT
I have to admit Paul has a point. I agree that some have their intentions in the right place but there are far more bad apples and even the good ones may only be good to a point. At the end of the day this is not just about a product but a service. Frankly how a seller may treat one of us or a reviewer like Robert or Matt by virtue of affiliation may be different from someone who just sees a sword on their site, knows nothing about swords and buys with little to no research first. Reviewers are not afraid fully test and even destroy swords, practitioners and professionals know how to look for major and minor flaws and people like myself who research before buying rely on this info. They know this. How fair is it that someone is only getting good treatment because of clout? Reviewer gets constant communication and great customer service but average guy spends money and hit or miss + ghosted like a crazy ex? Nah...
That said it isn't all of them but far too many. Manipulating positive reviews and using deceit to push half ass made swords combined with shoddy service isn't good for the industry as it makes the good businesses look bad when the market is flooded with cheaply made subpar stuff, plus make folks like us look like biased idiots to promote or defend their brand.
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Post by Robert in California on Jan 24, 2020 16:21:52 GMT
On the other hand, at least for me, if I was a sword seller and someone gave my swords a good review, I would be pretty dumb to make my regular stuff to be cr*p, which would negate the good sword reviews I got.
The sword market is thin and competitive. Cheaters get known pretty fast and word of mouth travels.
Were I a sword seller, I'd take that good review and run with it by upping my standards so to make better swords, to get more happy customers, who I would hope would recommend my stuff to others. Such would be smart business.
To use good reviews to let me better sell cr*p would be dumb. Word would get out.
RinC
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Post by zabazagobo on Jan 24, 2020 20:16:31 GMT
admin Can you elaborate on where the statistics come from for the Huawei chart? What sort of numerical data represents this depiction? This figure has no statistics attached to it, and I have no idea from where it is sourced.
Would you also mind elaborating on who the master smiths involved with Forge Direct are? This is frequently mentioned in newsletters and announcements, but I do not recall hearing mention of who specifically works on these projects. Clarification on who they are and what rank of mastery they possess would be rather informative.
And, as well, can you elaborate on what differentiates SBG custom offers from vendors such as JKOO/Sinosword who also make use of the same general fittings, saya and tsuka customization options as the similarly Longquan sourced swords sold on the SBG website? Since there is quite the overlap in materials and designs, and the market is niche, I am curious what differentiates these identical parts and fittings from the vendors you mentioned available on Ebay.
It is important to elaborate on this data so that the community can make responsible and informed buying choices.
Cheers! |
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Post by shepherd214 on Jan 24, 2020 21:15:30 GMT
admin Can you elaborate on where the statistics come from for the Huawei chart? What sort of numerical data represents this depiction? This figure has no statistics attached to it, and I have no idea from where it is sourced.
Would you also mind elaborating on who the master smiths involved with Forge Direct are? This is frequently mentioned in newsletters and announcements, but I do not recall hearing mention of who specifically works on these projects. Clarification on who they are and what rank of mastery they possess would be rather informative.
And, as well, can you elaborate on what differentiates SBG custom offers from vendors such as JKOO/Sinosword who also make use of the same general fittings, saya and tsuka customization options as the similarly Longquan sourced swords sold on the SBG website? Since there is quite the overlap in materials and designs, and the market is niche, I am curious what differentiates these identical parts and fittings from the vendors you mentioned available on Ebay.
It is important to elaborate on this data so that the community can make responsible and informed buying choices.
Cheers! If you go literally anywhere else other than sword buyers guide, Huawei has overwhelmingly positive reviews. Katana groups on facebook which are far more active than this site is nowadays, have constant reviews from Huawei that show they are the superior choice for most sub-500 dollar swords. I myself have had about 5 swords from them and they have all been amazing for the price. Yes, communication is spotty but I was very surprised to see that pie chart above say most reviews are neutral. Maybe on SBG, but nothing but positivity elsewhere. |
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Post by jyamada on Jan 24, 2020 22:20:45 GMT
admin Can you elaborate on where the statistics come from for the Huawei chart? What sort of numerical data represents this depiction? This figure has no statistics attached to it, and I have no idea from where it is sourced.
Would you also mind elaborating on who the master smiths involved with Forge Direct are? This is frequently mentioned in newsletters and announcements, but I do not recall hearing mention of who specifically works on these projects. Clarification on who they are and what rank of mastery they possess would be rather informative.
And, as well, can you elaborate on what differentiates SBG custom offers from vendors such as JKOO/Sinosword who also make use of the same general fittings, saya and tsuka customization options as the similarly Longquan sourced swords sold on the SBG website? Since there is quite the overlap in materials and designs, and the market is niche, I am curious what differentiates these identical parts and fittings from the vendors you mentioned available on Ebay.
It is important to elaborate on this data so that the community can make responsible and informed buying choices.
Cheers! If you go literally anywhere else other than sword buyers guide, Huawei has overwhelmingly positive reviews. Katana groups on facebook which are far more active than this site is nowadays, have constant reviews from Huawei that show they are the superior choice for most sub-500 dollar swords. I myself have had about 5 swords from them and they have all been amazing for the price. Yes, communication is spotty but I was very surprised to see that pie chart above say most reviews are neutral. Maybe on SBG, but nothing but positivity elsewhere. There is also Huawei's ebay feedback score. feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=huawei-sword&ftab=AllFeedback&myworld=true&rt=nc100% positive last 12 months. 866 score from 927 total feedbacks. I think 927 feedbacks is a pretty good sized pool for a sword retailer. I guess the validity of ebay scoring can be debated, but it is what it is. |
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Post by pvsampson on Jan 25, 2020 0:51:41 GMT
Not surprisingly I have seen nothing but good reviews for the last 12 months and they are highly recommended. I have read through many older threads,and it seems that any issues they have had in the past have been sorted. The pie chart is overall reviews since the forum inception maybe?
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Post by zabazagobo on Jan 25, 2020 1:09:29 GMT
Not surprisingly I have seen nothing but good reviews for the last 12 months and they are highly recommended. I have read through many older threads,and it seems that any issues they have had in the past have been sorted. The pie chart is overall reviews since the forum inception maybe? It is impossible to say. There is no numerical or statistical value to the figure, therefore there is nothing to interpret. |
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Post by zabazagobo on Jan 25, 2020 1:14:54 GMT
admin Can you elaborate on where the statistics come from for the Huawei chart? What sort of numerical data represents this depiction? This figure has no statistics attached to it, and I have no idea from where it is sourced.
Would you also mind elaborating on who the master smiths involved with Forge Direct are? This is frequently mentioned in newsletters and announcements, but I do not recall hearing mention of who specifically works on these projects. Clarification on who they are and what rank of mastery they possess would be rather informative.
And, as well, can you elaborate on what differentiates SBG custom offers from vendors such as JKOO/Sinosword who also make use of the same general fittings, saya and tsuka customization options as the similarly Longquan sourced swords sold on the SBG website? Since there is quite the overlap in materials and designs, and the market is niche, I am curious what differentiates these identical parts and fittings from the vendors you mentioned available on Ebay.
It is important to elaborate on this data so that the community can make responsible and informed buying choices.
Cheers! If you go literally anywhere else other than sword buyers guide, Huawei has overwhelmingly positive reviews. Katana groups on facebook which are far more active than this site is nowadays, have constant reviews from Huawei that show they are the superior choice for most sub-500 dollar swords. I myself have had about 5 swords from them and they have all been amazing for the price. Yes, communication is spotty but I was very surprised to see that pie chart above say most reviews are neutral. Maybe on SBG, but nothing but positivity elsewhere. I own quite a few Huawei as well, mostly t10, and the edges have performed VERY well compared to stuff from Hanwei which chipped on the same targets and impacts (e.g. wood, metal), so the blades do seem to be tempered to perform well, and on targets you actually should cut they perform very well. The tsuka also were all very tightly wrapped and haven't loosened (I suspect the ito was probably glued down to achieve this), which is nice since Hanwei ito loosens up sooner rather than later given regular, frequent use (e.g. 8 or more hours a week).
I used to have reviews posted of these swords that were rather favorable. I deleted them, along with a couple other reviews, because I'm rather particular about my writing being credited to me and am uncomfortable with some of the suggested implications of the SBG Forum content copyright, which is why I don't post reviews here anymore. This forum copyright is something else I would appreciate clarification on, admin . |
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admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2,114
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Post by admin on Jan 25, 2020 2:32:10 GMT
The link explains the context of the chart - it is from reviews submitted to SBG. I have no idea how other sites and groups operate, but at SBG we allow almost any type of review without prejudice.
Here is a breakdown of where the data came from:
To sum up, basically Forge Direct encompasses 4 sword forges. Not resellers, but the forges themselves (thus the name, Forge Direct). They don't mind to do this because we handle all the inquiries and customer service stuff and they concentrate on making the swords and shipping them. Because the blades are all their best stuff, it is worthwhile doing for them - they would not be interested if it was Forge Direct on $50 wallhangers for example.. (not that we would do that anyway, but you get where I am coming from).
Anyway, out of the four forges we work with, three are very big and make blades for MANY different brands and traders. They have several rank 1 Mastersmiths employed by them directly (guys who have served the 7 year apprenticeship) and the owners and level two Master Smiths, the Brothers Xiaolong (mostly Xialong Jiang, pictured below).
They make the acclaimed Forge Direct Custom Katana series, and some of the Chinese swords.
The Baojiang forge that specializes in traditional Chinese swords recently joined forces with us as part of Forge Direct and have a similar set up to the Xiaolong brothers and Zheng - who makes the Dojo Pro series and whose rank one Master Smiths under his employ create the Ronin Elite Soshu Kiate blades and Project X Japanese.
Last but certainly not least, we have a relative of Chris Scoggins Chinese wife Sara - Michael Ye, who is an independent rank 1 smith and who makes Chinese blades mostly for the Chinese domestic market. Most of the Wind Steel blades are his as they are something of his specialty.
I won't reveal everything I know about the industry as there are trade secrets and I don't want to lay every card on the table so the eBay crowd can trample their way in and destroy the whole thing.. But let's just say I know exactly how these guys operate, where they get their blades, how they are made, etc. I know the pricing, and I know when something is impossible or when it is an outright lie..
I have noticed a surprising lack of response regarding the dirty tactics and lies these sellers tell. Seems to be almost a consensus that as long as they make some good swords sometimes (and I know why they are good as the forge the blades comes from DOES do good work) months of leaving people in the dark, ghosting customers, frequently messing up custom orders (if one thing is wrong with one of our orders, we will start again if need be, not offer a $25 discount), lying about steel types and processes, lying about where the blades come from and who works for them and not treating the community or customers with the honesty they deserve.
It's a real shame because we worked many years to try and reveal what really goes on at the forges and these sellers undo all that hard work with a series of lies and misinformation and its really frustrating when people here can't see this and are happy to defend them..
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Post by jackytheblade on Jan 25, 2020 7:30:42 GMT
In other words the issue gets diminished down to a 'you' problem for the customer because the reviews were great. Which is not something we should want in the community because it pulls the veil over our eyes and creates more division in what is already a rather divided niche. Truth be told I think that a part of it is that some companies / forges are not growing and expanding themselves when they can and should in terms of their products. When I look through some of the products for some of the more established companies, I noticed one thing. All their swords look the same and pretty run of the mill from the basic line to the upper mid range, and the only way to get anything remotely special or unique is to mortgage your house.
Mind you, there is not that many changes you can do with a katana; they all pretty much follow a simple formula for the most part. Problem is that more established folks have been playing it extra safe for so many years and by human nature, sometimes safe is boring. Go on sword N armory and just randomly grab 6 or so random swords and save a few minor things they are basically look the same. Meanwhile some of these other sellers have forges experimenting with 1.5 inch soris and nodachi with 45 inch blades, are offering battlewrap tsukamaki and full samegawa wrap, sometimes with Emperor nodes. The disparity becomes even greater when you start to look at customization options. Blade shapes, sori shapes and such. Sure if some of these companies did that they would cost more but honestly there are people who WILL pay the extra as long as it is done right and done consistently. ( I really want to finish making this point but I need to sleep and have to drive...will edit later.)
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Post by Robert in California on Jan 25, 2020 13:15:20 GMT
Well said Admin!
No argument there.
I have not bought Huawei for a few years.
When I was, blades good, tsuka good, blade to saya fit was IMO bad (blades rattled badly in both vertically and horizontally, when blade in saya and sword is shaken).
Swords that rattle in the saya are to me, well, funky.
Also as I ordered customs, Huawei's customer response was usually very slow.
As Admin says, SGB swords such as Forge Direct are well worth out support.
And SGB sword store "ads" should be "in you face" here at the chat site.
I am guilty of going direct to the SGB chat site and so completely miss the SGB store ads.
And after a while, pretty much forgot about the SGB Store and forget to check it out for purchases.
I strongly suggest SBG Store ads be "in your face" here at the Chat site.
BTW, do current production Huawei's no longer rattle in the saya's?
I pretty much gave up on Huawei's for that reason (after getting 4 of them, the last one being a waki that was truly a barking dog of a sword...loose ito, terrible blade-to-saya fit....).
RinC
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Post by RaylonTheDemented on Jan 25, 2020 13:42:07 GMT
In other words the issue gets diminished down to a 'you' problem for the customer because the reviews were great. Which is not something we should want in the community because it pulls the veil over our eyes and creates more division in what is already a rather divided niche. Truth be told I think that a part of it is that some companies / forges are not growing and expanding themselves when they can and should in terms of their products. When I look through some of the products for some of the more established companies, I noticed one thing. All their swords look the same and pretty run of the mill from the basic line to the upper mid range, and the only way to get anything remotely special or unique is to mortgage your house. Mind you, there is not that many changes you can do with a katana; they all pretty much follow a simple formula for the most part. Problem is that more established folks have been playing it extra safe for so many years and by human nature, sometimes safe is boring. Go on sword N armory and just randomly grab 6 or so random swords and save a few minor things they are basically look the same. Meanwhile some of these other sellers have forges experimenting with 1.5 inch soris and nodachi with 45 inch blades, are offering battlewrap tsukamaki and full samegawa wrap, sometimes with Emperor nodes. The disparity becomes even greater when you start to look at customization options. Blade shapes, sori shapes and such. Sure if some of these companies did that they would cost more but honestly there are people who WILL pay the extra as long as it is done right and done consistently. ( I really want to finish making this point but I need to sleep and have to drive...will edit later.) Lots of my thoughts on the subject put into words right here.
I've been wanting a DH kanmuri-otoshi and mohora zukuri blades for a while for exemple, only options are Ebay and JKOO. I so wish more established brands would offer those options. Unobuki zukuri is quite popular and yet very rare in established stores, and none with options.
Different tsukamaki, full same wrap and ishigami?
Blades with niku?
Different hamons?
One goes browsing on Ebay and what options you want, you usually finds. Rarely so in established store, where you pretty much mostly find shinogi and shobu zukuri styles, and more often than not no customizing options at all.
Now, we all know Ebay issues, one will not necessarily get what one orders, but the thing is, the very option is there. I believe that the cost is one reason that drives potential buyers toward Ebay sellers, but options are what make a lot of us dip in these waters, because where else to go if I want, say, a O-katana with double bo-hi and O-kissaki? I have an answer: 3K from Motohara. Which is not an answer for the collector with a budget, so what do I do, Ebay or JKOO.
I may be wrong, but I believe the SBG Store is the only 'establishment' right now that propose customization options, and there have been some changes lately to improve things, which is great, but there's a lot of work yet to try and put a foot in the customs Ebay and JKOO propose right now, but there are steps in the right direction.
That being said, I had the opportunity to have a SBG custom in hand and have one on the work right now. I only dry handled it, here being Winter and snowy, but it looked and felt very nice indeed. Hopefully, wider variety of options in the future will make the store more alluring.
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Post by Lancelot Chan on Jan 25, 2020 13:44:57 GMT
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Post by shepherd214 on Jan 25, 2020 20:02:47 GMT
Well said Admin! No argument there. I have not bought Huawei for a few years. When I was, blades good, tsuka good, blade to saya fit was IMO bad (blades rattled badly in both vertically and horizontally, when blade in saya and sword is shaken). Swords that rattle in the saya are to me, well, funky. Also as I ordered customs, Huawei's customer response was usually very slow. As Admin says, SGB swords such as Forge Direct are well worth out support. And SGB sword store "ads" should be "in you face" here at the chat site. I am guilty of going direct to the SGB chat site and so completely miss the SGB store ads. And after a while, pretty much forgot about the SGB Store and forget to check it out for purchases. I strongly suggest SBG Store ads be "in your face" here at the Chat site. BTW, do current production Huawei's no longer rattle in the saya's? I pretty much gave up on Huawei's for that reason (after getting 4 of them, the last one being a waki that was truly a barking dog of a sword...loose ito, terrible blade-to-saya fit....). RinC Current Huawei's are getting very good reviews in all areas. Of course theres the occasional saya rattle or cracked tsuka, but unlike what the article posted yesterday on SBG says, in the last 3 or 4 years I've not heard of one person getting a 1045 blade(its very easy to tell if its 1045 because it takes a set easily and can be bent back easily), zinc alloy fittings(they are all cheap solid iron cutouts or higher quality iron), or a broken tang. Every sword labelled 9260 I've bought from them and many more I've seen others buy, they can be bent to almost 90 degrees and be returned true and straight, not possible with 1045 blades. I've also only seen one person not receive their sword but they were refunded their money. Also sending any sword back to China no matter what brand it is always results in chinese customs taking your sword, yet the article seems to indicate this only happens to ebay swords. I did however see a post on the SBG Facebook forum the other day receive a forge direct sword that had the blade forged crooked and out of line with the tang. He also paid 700 bucks for it... Not sure what's happening with that yet. Jacky from Huawei also just sent me preview pics for a wakizashi I ordered a few months ago, it will be my 6th custom sword from them. It looks amazing and the the sword is disassembled in the pic and looks great. |
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Post by sacredcompass on Jan 25, 2020 20:28:43 GMT
In other words the issue gets diminished down to a 'you' problem for the customer because the reviews were great. Which is not something we should want in the community because it pulls the veil over our eyes and creates more division in what is already a rather divided niche. Truth be told I think that a part of it is that some companies / forges are not growing and expanding themselves when they can and should in terms of their products. When I look through some of the products for some of the more established companies, I noticed one thing. All their swords look the same and pretty run of the mill from the basic line to the upper mid range, and the only way to get anything remotely special or unique is to mortgage your house. Mind you, there is not that many changes you can do with a katana; they all pretty much follow a simple formula for the most part. Problem is that more established folks have been playing it extra safe for so many years and by human nature, sometimes safe is boring. Go on sword N armory and just randomly grab 6 or so random swords and save a few minor things they are basically look the same. Meanwhile some of these other sellers have forges experimenting with 1.5 inch soris and nodachi with 45 inch blades, are offering battlewrap tsukamaki and full samegawa wrap, sometimes with Emperor nodes. The disparity becomes even greater when you start to look at customization options. Blade shapes, sori shapes and such. Sure if some of these companies did that they would cost more but honestly there are people who WILL pay the extra as long as it is done right and done consistently. ( I really want to finish making this point but I need to sleep and have to drive...will edit later.) Basically this was the reason I ordered from Jkoo/Sino, no one else in the market would have given me the customization options I was being offered by them at such a cheap price plus I was willing to gamble on it getting slightly botched or receiving poor customer service if it meant getting even 90% of what I asked for- which was apparently quite a lot for most "higher quality/service" vendors. I'd love to order something from the SBG store, but I don't have $500-$800+ to burn and if I did nothing catches my eye. |
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Post by jackytheblade on Jan 26, 2020 3:05:57 GMT
Yup. I was looking at the special Ryujin T10 unokubi akashiro. I wanted to buy one but already bought the T10 O-katana on special. Why aren't we seeing more stuff like that? (As a matter of fact I wish I could still grab one btw) everybody is doing hinerimaki and save forge direct new katana, everyone...EVERYONE is using white samegawa when other companies are sometimes giving you colour options for free and charging a little extra for a full wrap, even customizable lengths. The big name companies KNOW about these things and most either never offer them or wants you to pay half your soul. We know it can be pricey but not that bad honestly and frankly on anything upwards of $300 you would think such things are being offered.
I agree with Robert in Cali...the projects in SBG SHOULD get more push, should get more promotion and mindshare on this forum, however we need to call a spade a spade. A lot of companies are capable of great things but I just get the feeling and impression they are complacent and relying on their past glory. It is limiting and it isn't fair us or the future of their business and their employees.
That said I understand cost of labour for certain things. I would not want to be severely underpaying for a sanmai folded steel swords (that said I prefer Maru lamination) or anything like that. That said there are people who will pay once it is available and reasonably priced.
I maybe just some novice ranting on a forum but it was something that I just thought it needed to be said.
Osu.
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Post by treeslicer on Jan 26, 2020 5:23:38 GMT
But for now, I just hope getting the word out about their practices will be enough.. (though I doubt it - after all, we all really want to believe that we can find a true bargain that no-one else can and are willing to take the risk. But please know that by buying from these guys, you are effectively poisoning the well - and when they have picked the bones clean of the sword industry, they will just move on to another product - maybe Longquan Celedon is in their sights..)
/rant (yes, I do get personally upset when I discuss these guys because I see the direct effects they have on the forges over there. Most of the guys we met back in 2013 have lost their jobs since, and it is only getting worse as these dishonest sellers get rich on the backs of honest folk who call 1045 carbon steel 1045 carbon steel!).
I have been sufficiently moved by your eloquence that I just purchased one of your Ryujin Budget T10 Gunto from the SBG store. I'd hate to see the parent company of such a wonderful website go bankrupt. When it gets here, I'll evaluate it against originals (which were something of a budget production to begin with), and submit a review. I was somewhat surprised that nobody had put a formal one here on the forum yet. I noticed in the correspondence that your offices are in Hong Kong. Happy Year of the Rat, and guzzle some Maotai for me.  |
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Post by jackytheblade on Jan 26, 2020 5:36:39 GMT
But for now, I just hope getting the word out about their practices will be enough.. (though I doubt it - after all, we all really want to believe that we can find a true bargain that no-one else can and are willing to take the risk. But please know that by buying from these guys, you are effectively poisoning the well - and when they have picked the bones clean of the sword industry, they will just move on to another product - maybe Longquan Celedon is in their sights..)
/rant (yes, I do get personally upset when I discuss these guys because I see the direct effects they have on the forges over there. Most of the guys we met back in 2013 have lost their jobs since, and it is only getting worse as these dishonest sellers get rich on the backs of honest folk who call 1045 carbon steel 1045 carbon steel!).
I have been sufficiently moved by your eloquence that I just purchased one of your Ryujin Budget T10 Gunto from the SBG store. I'd hate to see the parent company of such a wonderful website go bankrupt. When it gets here, I'll evaluate it against originals (which were something of a budget production to begin with), and submit a review. I was somewhat surprised that nobody had put a formal one here on the forum yet. I noticed in the correspondence that your offices are in Hong Kong. Happy Year of the Rat, and guzzle some Maotai for me. I agree Ryujin makes great stuff. I got their o-katana and it is really great, an absolute beauty of a blade. |
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Post by RaylonTheDemented on Jan 26, 2020 7:39:18 GMT
I have been sufficiently moved by your eloquence that I just purchased one of your Ryujin Budget T10 Gunto from the SBG store. I'd hate to see the parent company of such a wonderful website go bankrupt. When it gets here, I'll evaluate it against originals (which were something of a budget production to begin with), and submit a review. I was somewhat surprised that nobody had put a formal one here on the forum yet. I noticed in the correspondence that your offices are in Hong Kong. Happy Year of the Rat, and guzzle some Maotai for me. I agree Ryujin makes great stuff. I got their o-katana and it is really great, an absolute beauty of a blade. Blades are nice, fittings good enough, tsukamaki is mostly awful tbh. |
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