Impending replica sword shortage?

[Straelbora]

Apparently, the Chinese government effectively shut down replica sword making in a pollution control measure. The blades themselves are OK, but a lot of the hilts, etc. are plated and their creation was causing a lot of dangerous waste materials.

https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/ ... tion-crack

[Elleth]

Oof... from what I've heard of Chinese industrial areas, that's probably a good thing. Some of their people have been living in a hellscape.

I suspect most all the products with demand will be available again in a year or two at the outside, probably a bit more expensive and perhaps minus some of those coatings.

[Straelbora]

Oof... from what I've heard of Chinese industrial areas, that's probably a good thing. Some of their people have been living in a hellscape.

I suspect most all the products with demand will be available again in a year or two at the outside, probably a bit more expensive and perhaps minus some of those coatings.

My wife is from China and I've been there a couple of times. The air quality in Beijing is shockingly bad. I was there in the summer both times- and that hot and humid air really holds the pollution in place. Visibility was about a block and a half- no exaggeration. Out of any random week, you're lucky to see some blue sky one day.

From a more detailed article I read by a sword importer, the 'fixtures' manufacturers very quickly tried to relocate- it appears that they're all centered around one city- and were stopped by local authorities, who wanted to make sure that the ban didn't follow the manufacturers. The article also stated that there's not a lot of inventory laying around, so a lot of people who ordered swords for Christmas presents are going to be out of luck, and lucky if they get refunds.

/One more reason to support your local blacksmith, I guess./

[Peter Remling]

Paul Southron operates Sword Buyers Guide and the Buyer's Guide Sword shop. He deals with the Chinese forges all the time and this is what he posted on Sword Buyers Guide Forum:This has been coming down the line for a while now - and the tsunami just hit..

EVERY seller based in China, from Alibaba to eBay is effected - and there is a real danger that sword buyers who have orders in with them currently or who order after this post has been made will NOT get their swords..

It has also washed over our Forge Direct and SBG Custom Katana Lines - both of which are now archived and unable to order for the immediate future.

Unlike the eBay and China based sellers, all of our existing orders in production are SAFE - components were secured in the lead up as we did see this coming and took steps accordingly (though not as bad as how it has turned out). For now, no new commissions can be taken - and we do not know when the situation will improve..

WHAT IS HAPPENING AND WHY?

In the last few months China has been cracking down hard on both the sword market in general and any factories that produce pollution of any kind. The power has been turned off on these companies, and if they try to resume operation, they will face jail time, that is how serious the government is about it..

Initially it was only the producers of Zinc Alloy fittings that were effected. But now all the typical copper fitting makers have ALL been shut down, and the forges have NO supplies to fulfill new orders. Other small forges have also been shut down, and many of the swords made for eBay sellers are mothballed.

Furthermore, the entire domestic Chinese sword market was shut down about a month ago with a comprehensive domestic shipping ban that decimated forges making traditional style Chinese swords. Many of the smiths have been forced to find new jobs, forges are shutting down left right and center and a skilled labor force is being permanently lost..

The Domestic Chinese shipping ban has been extended to EUROPE for no reason and with no explanation. In our case, we are rerouting swords to our US warehouses and will ship remaining European orders from the warehouses there - but if you are a customer from Europe who ordered direct from a Chinese seller, they cannot get their sword to you and you should take action to avoid them stalling until the period to refund is exceeded.

WARNING!!! DO NOT GET RIPPED OFF!!!

As many China based sellers now have an eye on the door, be especially careful of companies who try to procrastinate and stall you until a chargeback is no longer possible. Demand to find out the exact status of your order. If they do not reply within a reasonable timerame after a reminder or two, initiate a charge-back without delay.

European customers should be especially vigilant - this refusal of Chinese customs to process individual sword orders could extend to North America and Australasia without warning.

Be especially careful of sellers who ask for payment other than PayPal such as Western Union. These sellers have lost or are losing their livilihood and the chances of outright scams and opportunistic behavior is very real. If they are about to exit the industry, many of these sellers will have no qualms about trying to get cash and there is also a high chance that sellers who are attempting to stall customers may not have even began production of the order and are waiting out the charge-back period (which fortunately for PayPal, is now 6 month).

As I stated, our customers are safe - but I can't say the same thing for anyone who has purchased from eBay and Alibaba, etc and who has not received their sword yet.

IMPORTANT NOTE REGARDING LOCAL STOCKED SELLERS

Local importers who have stock are obviously unaffected at the moment but may have trouble down the line sourcing components and major retooling is underway for future shipments. This does not effect orders placed with them as they already imported a container load of swords from China.

For example, Ryujin Swords are assembled in the USA. All the components are already here, and if they need to retool - it won't effect you. If it says it is in stock, then its in stock. Same with Hanwei, Ronin, etc. They all have stock in the US sitting on the shelves.. In our case, we have already archived everything that can potentially be effected by this and we confirmed any existing orders will be fine.

So no need to worry about local suppliers - they got their stuff already. And if they are producing stock down the line that gets effected, they have time to try and find alternatives.

THE PROBLEM IS FOR SINGLE SWORD ORDERS COMING FROM CHINA DIRECTLY TO THE CUSTOMER AND CUSTOM ORDERS ONLY

Just want to make that as clear as possible. If you ordered from eBay recently and feel like you are being stalled, you need to take action... This applies doubly to European customers - they can't ship to you from China anymore - so you need to either ship to the USA and then to Europe or demand your money back as they cannot fulfil the order for you..


Like I said, this has been coming for a while now. The sky is not falling, but major changes and shifts are fully underway and we need to warn people now rather than see hundreds of posts about how they got ripped off by trying to go direct.

More updates will be posted as new information becomes available.

Again, SBG orders are safe - but no further orders are possible at this time. Responsible eBay sellers will also temporarily shut down or retool, but as stated, you need to be VERY careful about rip offs and scams from desperate sellers out there and make sure any existing orders with China based sellers are accounted for.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news..
Last Edit: yesterday at 1:35am by admin: Edited to make the distinction between China based sellers and local stocked suppliers clearer
www.sword-buyers-guide.com



Paul has also spoke at length on the monthly SBG Digest he emails but this gives you the picture of whats going on and what to watch out for.

[Kortoso]

China uses a LOT of coal; I assume that this crackdown is part of their movement away from coal?
Swords can be forged with gas heat, but making authentic tamahagane would be hard without coal or charcoal.
Thanks for sharing this.

[Straelbora]

China uses a LOT of coal; I assume that this crackdown is part of their movement away from coal?
Swords can be forged with gas heat, but making authentic tamahagane would be hard without coal or charcoal.
Thanks for sharing this.

My understanding is that it's part of an overall crack-down on pollution, but the sword makers (technically, those making parts for sword assemblies using metals other than steel) are targeted because of toxic waste produced from processing nickel plating, etc. China's air is horribly polluted, but so are its waters, often with heavy metals.

[Straelbora]

Peter- thanks for the detailed info.

As your article pointed out, it's not the end of the world, but there's the potential for a lot of people to lose money in this transition.

[Will Whitfoot]

Interesting news. I am not particularly sorry to hear it. Having been in the knife/sword making trade for quite a few years, I tend to be a fan of "Buy American". The mass influx of poorly made Chinese goods has been devastating for those still trying to pursue the traditional metal crafts and to hold to high quality standards. In particular, my own fantasy-coin products have been mercilessly counterfeited by the Chinese and sold to secondary markets in the US, Canada, Europe, South America, and Australia (that we know of). Our original "Iron Coin of the Faceless Man" (from the A Game of Thrones series) is made from metallurgically pure iron and may be confirmed by picking them up with a magnet. There are at least four different counterfeits known to us, all coming from China. We have purchased examples of the counterfeits on ebay and Amazon and have had them tested. They are cast in a high-lead zinc alloy and nickel plated. The lead content is so high that they would be illegal imports even if they were licensed. It would not surprise me at all to learn that the brass used to cast sword guards was also high-lead, and possibly with other toxic impurities as well... such as cadmium, that might be expected when using material reclaimed from recycled electronic waste.

I would encourage people interested in swords to seek out a reputable maker in the USA. The KNIVES annual by DBI books has a knifemaker directory section at the back that can help you find somebody local.

I applaud the Chinese government for cracking down on polluting enterprises. If it has an ancillary effect on the counterfeiting problem, so much the better.

[Straelbora]

Interesting news. I am not particularly sorry to hear it. Having been in the knife/sword making trade for quite a few years, I tend to be a fan of "Buy American". The mass influx of poorly made Chinese goods has been devastating for those still trying to pursue the traditional metal crafts and to hold to high quality standards. In particular, my own fantasy-coin products have been mercilessly counterfeited by the Chinese and sold to secondary markets in the US, Canada, Europe, South America, and Australia (that we know of). Our original "Iron Coin of the Faceless Man" (from the A Game of Thrones series) is made from metallurgically pure iron and may be confirmed by picking them up with a magnet. There are at least four different counterfeits known to us, all coming from China. We have purchased examples of the counterfeits on ebay and Amazon and have had them tested. They are cast in a high-lead zinc alloy and nickel plated. The lead content is so high that they would be illegal imports even if they were licensed. It would not surprise me at all to learn that the brass used to cast sword guards was also high-lead, and possibly with other toxic impurities as well... such as cadmium, that might be expected when using material reclaimed from recycled electronic waste.

I would encourage people interested in swords to seek out a reputable maker in the USA. The KNIVES annual by DBI books has a knifemaker directory section at the back that can help you find somebody local.

I applaud the Chinese government for cracking down on polluting enterprises. If it has an ancillary effect on the counterfeiting problem, so much the better.

Hopefully, the counterfitters of your coins will be caught in the same shut-down. Thanks for the additional detail on the specifics of how poisonous the trade can be.

[Kortoso]

China uses a LOT of coal; I assume that this crackdown is part of their movement away from coal?
Swords can be forged with gas heat, but making authentic tamahagane would be hard without coal or charcoal.
Thanks for sharing this.

My understanding is that it's part of an overall crack-down on pollution, but the sword makers (technically, those making parts for sword assemblies using metals other than steel) are targeted because of toxic waste produced from processing nickel plating, etc. China's air is horribly polluted, but so are its waters, often with heavy metals.

Thanks for the clar. I looked this up on other news sites; China's industrial pollution of our pretty blue planet is truly horrid. I'm so glad they are making moves toward cleaning up.
Reminds me of the scenes in in PJ's LOTR, where the orc army is pulling down trees, smithing blades at a mad rate, and generally despoiling the land. True middle-earth rangers - methinks - would not seek to profit from such a thing.