I don't know if this how other companies do it when one gets a sword from China to swords...Maybe somebody dealing with some place like Swords of Northshire has a different experience. But since others have recently expressed interest in HanBon Forge, I will just throw this out there.
To recap; I ordered my sword on April 15th and they told me it would be 5 to 6 weeks due to the "engraving" and the custom blade.
Apparently requesting that the Bo-Hi is a certain length, in my case having it start 2.5-3 cm above the habiki, makes it a custom blade. It also cost me $20 extra. ā ļø Caution digression ahead...
Not really sure how they apply the Bo-Hi. If they cut it in you would think there would be nothing really all that custom about that and it would actually save them time and effort by not having to cut an additional 3 cm on each side. Of course they would actually have to pay attention do not continue the cut, so maybe that makes it custom.
However, maybe blades ordered with a Bo-Hi are not cut but are stamped in play Separate process during the manufactur.
And that stamp procedure a set length, so if that has to change THEN they have to do the cutting and so there you have a more custom blade.
Whichever it is, they're going to have a fun time with my next blade then, because it's intended to be 2.5cm from the Habaki and 8-9cm from the tip.
Ok. End digression.
So anyway, from April 15th they said a minimum of five weeks and so I am pleasantly surprised when they contact me in 3 weeks on May 8th and said, "Ta-Da! (Or whatever the Chinese equivalent of Ta-da is) your blade is done."
At which time they sent me pictures and ask me to approve it and told me that once I did that, which I did right away, they would ship it and send me the tracking number.
So I'm figuring they are going to start the boxing and shipping procedure from that point and maybe 2 or 3 days I'll have a tracking number.
Well, 8 days go by and I don't hear anything. So tonight, Sunday the 16th, I sent them an email asking Whazz up?...in so many other polite words.
To their credit I did hear back in about a half hour, because it was a little before 11 Monday morning their time. They said that they have indeed already sent it to their UPS agent and they should have a tracking number from him for me in a day or two.
Well, what can you say to that except, "Okay fine. Xiexie ni." ( sha-sha nee./Thank you very much)
So there you have it. Or rather there I have it. My sword, supposedly, is on the move.
So, for anybody else dealing with HF, that's how they roll when it comes to the shipping.
Can't really judge it as I don't know what the industry standard is for such things.
As I said, I noticed some other people inquiring about HanBon Forge, anybody else put in their order in the last few weeks?
ADDENDUM:
Midnight of May 16. Five hours after my earlier emails with HF I just heard from them again. YAO apologized and said that they just found my tracking number in their office. Apparently some of the confusion was that they sent my sword over to the UPS Agent late in the afternoon before the weekend. But the UPS people don't work on the weekends so nobody really in-processed it and it just kind of sat around there until this morning, Monday their time. (They are are 15 hours ahead of California. So my Sunday midnight is their Monday 3 in the afternoon).
Then they got the tracking number to Yao's office, but somebody there just kind of set it aside and nobody did anything about it until he asked somebody to follow up on it and they're like, "Oh, I have his tracking number here."
If not actually what happened that is the gist of my understanding of how it went down.
So at least I appreciate his honesty as far his indirectly saying the sword sat around it his...office(?) all week before they dropped it off at UPS late before the weekend. And then admitting that somebody in their office screwed up by not processing my tracking number and getting it to me as soon as it came in like they were supposed to.
So, there's really nothing to do with all that at this point except be grateful that the sword is on the move.