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Sword Buyers Digest August 2007 August 01, 2007 |
| Hey,
Sure do have a lot to get through this edition, July was a very busy month indeed! Not only was the site given another mini overhaul (including the SBG Sword Store), but there were 5 more hands on reviews added, a real breakthrough for sword buyers outside of the USA, a completely free guide to learning the basics of European swordsmanship – and that’s just for starters! So without any excessive pre-ambling, let’s get straight into it!
CONTENTS
1. SBG SITE NEWS AND UPDATES
July sure has been a busy month! First off, there has been a site wide reformat which has made it a lot easier to add more reviews (in a ‘modular’ way with plenty of room for expansion). And add new reviews we did! There’s been the Kris Cutlery Celtic Sword, the Windlass Pugio Dagger, Ontario Knife Co’s Black Wind Sword, the (long awaited review) of the Cheness SGC Series Katana and most recently the Hanwei Practical Kung fu sword (boy, was that one fun!). Lot’s more reviews and expansions planned for August, so to watch them as they unfold – or to catch up on the reviews mentioned above, take a look at the SBG News section or better yet – subscribe to the RSS feed for up to the minute additions as they happen.
The second installment of the upcoming sword training section sees the return of a very popular online manual detailing the basics of traditional European long sword fighting.
That’s right – the ‘Trueswordsman’ by Adam Sharp is back – and now available as a free download in ebook format!
From basic footwork to the guard positions, master strikes and lots of additional training and fighting information and material, this indispensable guide is now in a print friendly format! There really is nothing else like it!
NON US SWORD BUYERS REJOICE! A lot of people outside of the USA have been waiting a looong time for a service like this... Discovered by a customer of the SBG Sword Store, Jens Ole Knudsen of Denmark, Access USA is a company that specializes in forwarding orders placed with US companies to customers outside of the USA with a minimum of fuss, hassle and at less than half the price usually paid for shipping swords out of the US!
So not only can you save some serious $$$ on shipping swords from the US, but now non-US buyers can get access to vendors who usually don’t ship outside of North America!
Check out the full article and how it applies specifically to swords here
A NEW AUSSIE SWORD STORE!
It’s been a long time coming, but finally there has been a breakthrough regarding Global Gear’s hegemony over the local Australian sword industry... Newcomers, Mike and Ron from the Ausblade Forums have got together and created not only their own new store, but their own BRAND of swords too! Called Shumi Swords (Shumi is the Japanese word for ‘hobby’), not only are their prices extremely competitive by Aussie standards (case in point, a PPK is $449 at Globalgear but Shumi Swords do it for $373.50!) – but Mike and Ron are both very good friends of the SBG Forums and regular posters, plus they will be offering even further discounts for SBG members!
Check it out here – it’s a breath of fresh air for Aussie sword buyers – and I can assure you that they will meet and far exceed your expectations...!
Some VERY big competitions are on the way as we slowly but surely make our way towards Christmas and beyond. But for August, to keep things fun, I’ve decided to create a mini competition.
All I want you to do is to select which sword you would like to see me personally review on SBG next!
The sword has to be available new for under US$300, but apart from that there are no other restrictions.
You can submit your entries in the competitions section and after the 15th of August there will be 5 days of voting. Once voting is closed, the person who suggested to most popular entry will win x2 $10 Reliks.com Gift Vouchers, with one more $10 Gift Voucher to be given away to a randomly selected voter! (So that Forumite Rammstein can’t be the ONLY winner again! Lol)
In keeping with this months ebook theme, I thought that the video of the month should feature some decent longsword techniques and to that end – I found a real beauty...
From Germany and entitled “Fechten mit dem langen Schwert” this 2 minute video shows a series of rapid fire strikes and counters in the true German long sword tradition.
Not only educational, but fascinating to watch and with a very classy soundtrack that compliments it perfectly, this would have to be one of my favorite youtube clips of all time.
A selection of hot product discounts and clearouts from our affiliated vendors. Grab a bargain and support SBG at the same time!
RELIKS.com
I hate it when Windlass do this...
But another one of their best swords, the hollow ground Sword of Auray has been discontinued... One of their best swords, this piece is normally $189.99 – but it is now on closeout at Reliks for $161.49 when you enter the coupon code ‘SAVE -15%’ during the checkout.
This coupon code works on ALL the various swords and items listed in the Reliks Clearouts section. And there are some darn good pieces there that REALLY should never have been discontinued.... Check out the Reliks Clearouts section here
SBG SWORD STORE
If you’ve been to the SBG Sword Store this month, you’ll see it looks a lot different than last time – and I hope, a lot cleaner and easier to navigate... Anyway, after some careful consideration, despite the fact that I found a loophole to allow me to sell the Hanwei ‘Partner Exclusive’ Performance series Katana at prices below what everyone else was allowed to, when I started doing so I had decided that to be fair to other vendors, this would only be for a limited time... Well, the time has come. And on the 3rd of August, the lower than MAP prices will be raised to the same as other Performance series sellers.
I should point out that this was NOT by the results of any pressure from Hanwei or any other outside source, but rather is my own decision not to undercut their prices in this way any longer. But for the next three days only, the special prices are still available – and some of them are ridiculously underpriced...
After these prices are normalized – there may be a few discount coupons and the like a few months from now. But you will NEVER see a store selling them like this again, so if you’ve been eyeing these off for a while, now is your chance to get in before the special pricing is gone for good...
Well, that about wraps up the August edition of the digest. There are a lot of quite significant changes and updates that will be taking place at SBG over the coming month or two, so stay tuned for the next edition. I’m not 100% sure if all the changes will make it in time for next month, but at least I’ll be able to spill the beans on what is going on behind the scenes – exciting times ahead indeed!! Until then, stay safe and have fun with swords! Paul Southren |
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Welcome to the August edition of the Digest!
Indeed there are two swords there that simply cannot be sold for under $740 available there for $589.99 SHIPPED – such as the Shinto Elite Katana! (pictured left)