Good to be back – hope you all had a good new years’ celebration!

As you know, we traditionally don’t publish the digest in January, so as this is our first issue for what is going to be a BIG year, it’s natural that this is going to be a bit of a big issue – especially our MASSIVE feature article by Marc Ridgeway documenting his eye opening behind the scenes visit and interview with Museum Replicas Limited (it's soo big that while it was originally going to go IN the digest, we ended up adding it as 8 new pages to the site!)!

So please get comfortable and I hope you enjoy your read!

CONTENTS

1. From the Desk of Paul Southren
2. Featured Article: Behind the Scenes at MRL
3. Best Forum Posts
4. Video of the Month: AMAZING Sword Skill
5. Bargain Hunters and Clearouts Special

That’s right, on the 13th of Feb SBG officially turns 7 years old! And another milestone - the digest just passed over 10,000 subscribers (10,124 at the time of typing this email to be exact!).

Looking back, we really have accomplished quite a bit in the last seven years.. It’s been a hard slog to get to this point, that is for sure..

From humble beginnings with a handful of my own personal sword tests and reviews, the site gradually grew to include other contributors and spawn an extremely vibrant forum and community.

But in the last couple of years as funds got tighter and the global economic crisis hit, things slowed down to a crawl – compounded of course by the fact that personally dealing with the day to day maintenance of a large and popular site and store is incredibly time consuming. .

However all of this is set to change...!

Over the next few months SBG will start to expand its core team significantly - reviving a vast array of projects that have been put on hold due to lack of time and finances.

In 2012, SBG will be adding more functionality, more up to date news and information, more opportunities for community feedback and interaction and more fresh content than ever before!

In short, I am confident that by this time next year SBG will be at least 2-3 times bigger and more relevant to the sword community while still keeping true to and reinforcing its roots as a no BS source of sword information dedicated to all things long, sharp and pointy...

So stay tuned, the best is definitely yet to come…!

You might remember that in the last issue of the digest two recent projects by Windlass Steelcrafts and Museum Replicas Limited (MRL) captured my attention – the first being their ‘create a sword’ project for medieval enthusiasts and the second a much anticipated (at least by me!) release of their Conan the Barbarian line swords.

Well, these two releases sparked my interest in what was going on over at MRL more than ever before. So to check it all out, we arranged for Marc Ridgeway to head on over to pay them an official visit, take some photos, ask some questions and give us a look behind the scenes on behalf of SBG.

This really is a great article – and it turns out that there is a lot more to MRL than meets the eye.

The MRL showroom and physical store is impressive as it is – more than enough to make any sword lover start drooling uncontrollably…

But we also take a look at what you don’t normally get to see, like the workshop, Bobbys Forge, and a true treasure trove, the ENTIRE stock of actual antique weapons that Windlass bought from the Nepalese Army 10 years ago..!!

And that’s just for starters!

The whole 8 page adventure is documented on SBG and digest subscribers get the first peak – check it all out below:

INDEX

Page 1 – Introduction and Show Room Tour

Page 2 – Testing grounds and Workshop Tour

Page 3 – From Ghurka to the USMC, Windlass History

Page 4 – The Nepalese Antique Armory!

Page 5 – Movie Props and Replicas

Page 6 - LARP for Monty Pythons Holy Grail and more

Page 7 – Conan the Barbarian Swords

Page 8 – Make Your Own Sword and Conclusion

Cold Steels Line up for 2012
Famous for making swords that no-one else is seemingly motivated to create, their 2012 line up features some cool must haves – including a much requested Russian Shasqua!

When is the right time to rat on a bad vendor?
Even the best vendors have the odd slip up now and again. But where (and when) to draw the line? Interesting thread – and it would seem that some of us have more patience than others!

Why do YOU buy ‘Battle Ready’ swords?
We all have our reasons. But it’s always interesting to know what reasons other collectors have.

Swords are NOT toys – some graphic reminders..
Probably not best to watch this collection of videos while snacking.. But it goes to show you that swords are NOT toys, and some people….. (sighs – please, just – don’t…)

Well, it would appear that quite a bit of additional information has been out there for a while – this 3 part video explains it all, narrated by the translator/author of an excellent book I picked up in Japan called ‘Shoninki – Path of the Ninja’ Antony Cummins.

YouTube Video of the Month

Part Two Part Three Even if you don’t agree with everything he says, he does present some rather compelling information .

For anyone interested in more information on Ninja his website has quite a few free downloads and more information on his site here: http://www.natori.co.uk/natori%20home.html

To celebrate SBG’s 7th birthday we have stocked the store Jam packed full of goodies!

For a start, we recently restocked our selection of Hattori FOLDED Katana, and am pleased to be able to continue to offer them for the discounted price of between $229 to $249 depending on the model. Plus, the extremely attractive 2209 model is now available as an unsharpened iaito for practicing Kata!

You can find this, and our last chance offer on the discontinued Moroha Zukuri Raptor Katana in the HOT Specials section of the store – plus added in the last few days, another special closeout offer – this time on the Tinker Pearce training blunts, where you can pick up any three models as a package deal for just $329.99 shipped FREE in the USA.

See them all here

Plus, just joining our line up of IN STOCK swords made by the SBG Custom Katana forge, we are pleased to bring back one of my favourite designs, the Yukiken (snow sword) – a T10, differentially hardened tool steel blade with sleek fittings and delux rayskin rapped saya for $399.99 shipped free within the USA and Canada.

Or the basic $329.99 Black Dragon Katana design, available with our without bo-hi.

Stocks are limited on these, so be sure to get in while they are still available. You can see them all in the SBG custom Katana section here (all of these swords came in with batch 17 late last year, but I have staggered the release. But this is the complete line up now – batch 18 will be receiving an official update very soon, and at this stage the NEXT batch of custom Katana is due to open either late this month or early next month, however all of the pre-made designs are IN STOCK and ready to be shipped from my agents Canadian warehouse).

SBG has a reputation for selling our swords at the lowest possible price – we don’t like to charge huge markups, but the downside is that we don’t have very much room to move pricewise when it comes to discounts..

However, as it is our 7th birthday, from now until midnight the 13th of February we are offering a blanket 7% discount on EVERYTHING in the store, even our closeouts, specials, SBG swords, Ronin Katana – you name it, the discount can be applied to anything and everything.

To take advantage of this special offer simply enter the coupon code: SBG7 (all capitals, exactly as shown above) in the checkout and it will automatically apply the 7% discount on everything before you make your payment. Our only condition is that this discount is ONLY available at the time of purchase and cannot be applied after an order has already been made or entered into the system.

Be sure to join the party, not only does it save you money but every purchase at the store goes towards ensuring we are around for another 7 years..!

Paul Southren