Comments on site

by Henry
(Billings, MT, USA)

Hi Paul,

I wanted to tell you I really appreciate having found your site on the net. Not only are the reviews helpful, but the information on buying swords for first time sword buyers is phenomenal, and the HSN Stainless Steel Katana breaking video should be considered a must see for all neophyte sword shoppers.

I bought my first sword in March of this year, but not on-line. I was in Denver, CO at the Aurora Mall, in this Chinese/Oriental gift shop. There was a huge collection of Katanas and some other swords/ weapons as well. I was a complete neophyte at this time and hadn't found your wonderful site yet. I had spent about 15 minutes looking at various cheap stainless steel katanas and some Kill Bill movie replicas while talking with the proprietor, a very nice older Chinese gentleman. I eventually asked him what he would recommend in a real katana, and he steered me away from the SLOs I had been looking at and directed me to a Hanwei Practical Katana instead. I took his advice and picked it up for a reasonable price, especially considering my lack of knowledge at the time, although I later learned I could have gotten it cheaper on-line, although not by much. I got really lucky my first time out.

My second purchase was because of your site. Through your site I found the matching Wakizashi from Hanwei on the Reliks.com site, at a great price. Naturally, I had to get it to accompany the Katana. With everything I've learned from your site, I now feel confident in looking at and buying swords on-line and through mail order catalogs and knowing what I'm getting (and in the mail order catalogs, a lot of it is SLOs and most items are cheaper elsewhere). Reliks gave great service, although the wait for it to come through the mail was unbearable as I didn't pay for express shipping. That's not to say that the shipping was too long, I was just impatient to get my sword.

Now I'm looking at getting a couple more swords, possibly the Katana you have on sale at SBG and either a long sword or hand and a half sword from Arms of Valor.

Anyway, to sum things up, neophyte sword shoppers looking for low cost reasonable quality swords need to visit your site before they make their first purchase! Not only to you provide great basic information, you provide warnings about less than reputable vendors and reviews of tried and true quality vendors. Keep up the great work!

Henry

PAUL's COMMENT: Thanks so much Henry, I really love reading these stories and knowing that my site is achieving what I have always wanted it to achieve.

Always good to know it's on the right track.

Thanks again,

- Paul