Sword Buyers Guide Blog

Wondering what's new at Sword Buyers Guide?

The Sword Buyers Guide Blog is designed to keep you totally up to date and let you know whenever any new pages appear on SBG, as well as when any old ones are modified (to keep up with any recent trends or changes) - not to mention highlighting some cool pages you simply might have missed before...

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Mar 14, 2010, Valiant Armoury Kreigschwert Sword Review

Hands on Review of the Valiant Armoury Kreigschwert sword by ChrisA with additional heavy duty test results conducted by Paul Southren

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Mar 9, 2010, New Look Store and Pending Reviews

Hey folks,

If you haven't visited the SBG sword store for a little while, you are in for a bit of a surprise..

While it is not 100% complete cosmetically yet, it's running smoother than ever before, and has a whole new look that FINALLY matches the main site.

Follow the link at the end of this blog to have a look and see what you think!

Behind the scenes, I've been conducting a lot sword tests this week too - so extensive in fact that it will probably take at least a couple of weeks to put it all together, though some new reviews such as the Cold Steel Bokken Review (where I found out exactly how CUT resistant these things really are, or are not as the case may be) will be popping up ahead of the 'big one'.

Anyway, in the meantime hope you enjoy the new look store!!

Paul Southren

Click for more info

Feb 14, 2010, The New Select a Sword System (beta!)

In my last post on Feb 4 you might recall I mentioned something about a "revolutionary change to the way site visitors can get the absolute most out of the reviews and information on SBG"..?

Well, since we have so many LOOOONG pages on SBG, and I often get bombarded with emails from people asking me what is the best sword for me, I decided that I might as well answer those questions on the site once and for all, and hopefully make it easier for visitors who have the SAME questions, but just don't get around to emailing me!

Introducing, the Select a Sword System (Beta)!

Basically, you may notice that a lot of the review pages now have something that looks a bit like this:

Towards the top of the page..

Well, below this graphic you'll find several statements that (hopefully) describe what you are looking for in a sword, and by clicking on the statement - you are taken to a page of recommendations, primarily based on the reviews on that page.

It's pretty simple stuff, but the general idea is an optional way to 'break up' the longest pages into categories while still keeping the big picture story of each page intact.

I must admit that this idea is not 100% original, I first saw something similar years ago on the now defunct website - Chivalry Steel (you can see it archived in the 'way back machine' here) - and when I saw this I thought, "this is actually pretty cool and not a bad idea" - but never thought about it again until years later and decided to do something somewhat similar..

Anyway, just wanted to give credit where it is due on that - and also wanted to mention that what you see so far is just the beta version - the pages themselves were very hastily written (22 pages in 3 days I think, phew!) - so will be added to and edited as we go, plus there will eventually be a 'central' find a sword system not based on any genre but rather on application and budget, but this is a little way down the track for now (had to wrap it up early and just get what had been done on the site so I can concentrate on a couple more projects!).

Anyway, got to fly - check out any of the pages from Ancient Swords to Japanese Katana to see how it is shaping up!

Best,

Paul

Feb 4, 2010, New Reviews Added

Hey folks,

Just added 5 new reviews to the site and have adjusted all relevant pages to include them - you can see them all below, and there are a few more scheduled for this month that will be added as we go..

Behind the scenes, I am also about to start work on a couple of new projects, one of which will actually be perhaps the most revolutionary change to the way site visitors can get the absolute most out of the reviews and information on SBG...

More on this soon, but expect to see some more reviews added over the following week.

Paul Southren

Feb 3, 2010, Hedemark Viking Sword Review

Insert Description Here

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Feb 2, 2010, Musashi Bamboo Katana Review

The $80 Musashi Bamboo Katana may well represent the next generation of low cost, differentially hardened Katana with real hamon. But how does it REALLY compare to more traditionally priced, traditional Katana? Find out in this review from SBG's Paul Southren

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Feb 2, 2010, Hanwei Scottish Claymore Review

Hands on Review of the sub $200 Hanwei Scottish Claymore by Robert Betts, including hard durability testing on a wooden shield

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Feb 2, 2010, Ronin Dotanuki Katana Review

Hands on review of the new Ronin Katana Dotanuki Dojo Pro line - model # 003

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Jan 20, 2010, Quick Update

Wow, I just realized that it has been over one month since the last post here on the SBG blog, so I had better make a quick appearance..!

Have been run off my feet behind the scenes - mostly with a plethora of emails and dealing with several exclusive SBG projects (you'll see that the News section over at the SBG Sword Store has been anything but quiet (and I also just realized that the latest addition to the site, which is an overview of the NEW Heavy Duty Dotanuki blades by Ronin Katana somehow did not update as it should have, so please do check it out - if you are a Katana lover I am sure you will find it VERY interesting!).

Anyway, some recent news - as many of you are no doubt aware, one of the most reliable (not to mention the most aggressively priced) sword stores - Kult of Athena - recently had their site go down from Christmas eve to a few days ago - and when they came back, they came back with some prices so incredibly low on the entire range of Hanwei swords that I have had to play catch up and update as many reviews with the new prices as possible..!

I'll also be updating most of the main pages over the next day or two (just some minor tweaks), adding a few more reviews here and there and (if time permits) adding a fun new article to the 'community' section of the site (though with the end of the month looming, writing next months issue of the Sword Buyers Digest will of course take precedence..

So yes indeed, crazy busy behind the scenes as usual!!

Talk to you all again soon. In the meantime, Katana fans should definitely have a look at both KoA's new prices on Hanwei swords and follow the link at the bottom of this post to check out the brand new heavy duty Ronin Kats..

Best,

Paul Southren

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Dec 16, 2009, Sword Questions

Sword Questions of the Week: