This issue sees the official launch of a ‘secret’ project that I have been working on since February this year – as well as a few cool competitions and some long awaited official SBG merchandise, including the long awaited 2008 ‘Beauty and the Blade’ Calender!

Have a look and see what you think!

CONTENTS

1. SBG SITE NEWS AND UPDATES
2. SWORD INDUSTRY NEWS
3. SWORD COMPETITIONS: Win a Free Sword!
4. BEST FORUM POSTS
5. VIDEO OF THE MONTH – ‘The Samurai Way’
6. BARGAIN HUNTERS CLEAROUTS AND DISCOUNTS

First off, after much pestering and demands throughout the year – I have FINALLY created a line of SBG themed accessories.

Here you'll find baseball caps (at the request of Kreigschwert), T-shirts and Mugs (for shootermike) and many other bits and pieces at my new Cafepress SBG Merchandise store

Proceeds from the sale of these various items will go to help keep SBG running, and are a great way of letting people know about the site and forums at such events such as cutting parties, ren faires and martial art competitions to name a few.

Plus it is in this store you will also find the magnificent ‘Beauty and the blade’ 2008 SBG Calender!

Featuring a selection of beautiful SBG forumites and/or their partners (and the stunning RicWilly in Drag for Octobers Halloween theme of course) tastefully posing with their swords, this Calender is an absolute MUST HAVE for the die hard SBG aficionado – plus proceeds will help fund a brand new sword from the SBG Sword Store as a prize for the model with the most popular photo!

To select the winning photo, click here – and don’t forget to pick yourself up a copy or two while you are there! The page and the voting will be taken down on December 15th, so be sure to vote for the SBG Queen of 2007 as soon as possible.

But while all of this is pretty cool, it’s just the tip of the iceberg...

Ok, now THIS is the BIG announcement – and the official launch of a major project I have been working on semi-secretly since February 2007...

Sword Buyers Guide now has an official fraternal twin and companion site – Sword Manufactures Guide.com

Over the coming few days, the links between both sites will be completed. The plan is that whenever a manufacturers name is mentioned in SBG, a link will be made to a landing page for the new sister site - so that an overview and the most up to date overview on this brand can be obtained with a single click...

Sword Manufactures Guide.com (SMG) is essentially a complete run down of each major production sword company – complete with information on their product lines, a newsfeed to manufacturer specific announcements, a breakdown of known issues and a guide on where to get the best deal – as well as a list of other stockists so you can do your own comparisons.

But perhaps most importantly, SMG is also a repository of sword enthusiast observations, warnings and recommendations – kind of like a mini forum for each manufacturer, though a forum where the info doesn’t get buried and is kept as up to date and relevant as possible.

Naturally, as this site has only just been launched – the repository of information from visitors is a bit thin on the ground. So I hope you’ll have a mosey on over there, have a bit of a read, and add your own experiences and observations into the mix...

...Because as you will see in our competitions section, doing so could nab you something cool for your time! Which leads us neatly to...

As I mentioned just a few lines ago, the comments and visitors experiences section of SMG is looking a bit like Old Mother Hubbards cupboard – there isn’t anything there! Which of course, is only natural as the site was just launched... ;-)

However, to encourage people to post their thoughts, experiences, warnings, rants and miscellaneous others – I am holding a special competition for the best visitor contribution.

All you need to do to enter is to post something (anything!) with your name and email address (so I can contact the winner, naturally the email addresses are not actually published on the site of course) and the best entry (as selected by me) that is submitted by December 15 can select ANY sub US$300 sword in stock from the SBG Sword Store!

A pretty cool prize – and a great opportunity to share your impressions and experiences of the various brands so that the site can hit the ground running.

Valiant Armouries Signature Line Update

Calculating the Cutting Power of a Longsword

Brenno’s Second Home Made sword – a leafblade

Tips on Soaking Tatami Mats

Secret Documents of the Knights Templar – and some cool pics too!

ROLEPLAY of THE MONTH
by Tajima

The first Roleplay of the Month award goes to 1427, a Generic Battle of the Hundred Years War! -, created by common Roleplayer Rammstein!

The roleplay featured several well-written fight scenes and brilliant tactics on both sides. It was very much a draw between the French and the English, ending in a quite twisted love story. Congratulations to all who joined in the fun!

Likely many of you will be familiar with it – but those of you are not, you are in for a special treat.

This old school video is one of the best on youtube, primarily because – unlike most other vids about Samurai swords there – the amount of BS and hype is kept to an absolute minimum.

Instead, this episode of the TV series - called ‘The Samurai Way’ and split into four parts concentrates on the philosophy behind the sword, with some amazing demonstrations of precision by the humble Master of the Katori Shinto Ryu school, Shihan Risuke Otake as well as some rare footage of sword forging with Yoshihara Yoshindo (immortalized in the classic Japanese sword book ‘The Craft of the Japanese Sword’).

This meandering classic is a must watch for anyone even vaguely interested in Japanese swords and the Samurai culture.

You Tube Video of the Month

For the other parts in this 4 part series: Part II
Part III
Part IV

SBG SWORD STORE: New lines from Darksword Armoury

LARP SWORDS: Now the first special is a very interesting and fun one indeed. I received a couple of samples of Darksword Armories medieval and fantasy LARP foam sparring and training swords a couple of months ago but haven’t had the time to get around to reviewing them properly on the site (mostly because, I’d need to really create the much procrastinated sword training section to put them in!).

However, after some pretty hard sparring with them – and smacking them repeatedly against all manner of inanimate objects - I can tell you that these ‘swords’ are extremely tough (not surprisingly, after all, it is Darksword we are talking about here!).

Light weight (around 1lb 1oz for a hand and a half) and with a point of balance around 6” from the cross guard, these swords actually handle quite realistically.

And the best part? You can go full contact with only minimal armour (a head guard and groin protection is a good idea, but a full power blow – though a little painful - is absorbed by the layered foam padding enough to avoid bruising).

I’ll be doing a proper review on them in the next few months. But here I want to offer you an early bird special and MASSIVE CHRISTMAS DISCOUNT on some selected sets (after all, you are going to want more than 1!).

These swords normally sell for US$140 each (plus shipping). But Darksword have found a way to make them even tougher (which, from my experiences with them, seems to be laregly unnecessary!) so have allowed me to offer the existing stock in sets at a ridiculous price.

So here’s the deal:

I am now offering three sets of these swords with FREE SHIPPING in the US and Canada.

The first set is US$199.99 for THREE Single Handers (Two Viking swords and a medieval Arming Sword), the second - $169.99 for a LoTR Anduril and Glamdring set.

And the last (and in my opinion the best value for money set) is $219.99 for THREE Medieval Longswords.

Obviously, these are some pretty serious savings (over $200 on the longswords!). But it gets even more serious...

Because from now until December 15, SBG Digest readers can get an additional WHOPPING 25% discount off these already massively discounted prices!

In other words, three single handers for US$149.99 SHIPPED (effectively TWO FREE SWORDS plus free shipping) two LoTR Longswords for US$127.50 or three longswords for $164.99!

To get the 25% discount, simply enter the special coupon code LARP in the checkout.

Check them out here and see what you think. If you want to try some no holds barred fast and furious sword fighting with your friends, and walk away with your limbs still attached, these foam swords are some serious fun!

NEW SAXON SWORD: Darkswords latest design, the one handed Saxon Sword is the blade you see getting torture tested by one of the boys on youtube here.

As of today, this sword has been added to the DSA line up at the SBG Sword Store and is selling for US$259.99 with FREE SHIPPING in the USA and Canada. However, as a Christmas special, I am able to lower my already thin margins to a record low by offering a 10% discount coupon code - SAXON until December 15.

Check out the Saxon Sword here

Hope you all have a fantastic holiday season and a very Merry Christmas and I’ll see you all in 2008! Until then, stay safe and Happy Swordening!

Paul Southren