Fast forward a few years and I move to Japan and take my first trip to one of the largest forges in Longquan city, the mountainous sword making capital of China and PROJECT X was born.

Things were very different then, there were small forges and a few big ones like Jack Zheng, pictured with me as I show a clearly rather pleased reaction to one of the very first Project X Japanese blades ever made.

7 Years later, it's now available as a custom sword (indeed, as many of you who read the store blog will know, it's all I been talking about recently as we just opened the first and only batch on the 23rd of August and it was closed slightly oversold within 4 days).

This was 2 years after what I termed the end of the "Golden Age of Swords (2005-2010)" - but I was not going to let the downturn from the 2008 financial crisis destroy the industry. Not on my watch..

SIDENOTE: We just revived and updated a page from the old and now defunct 'Sword Manufactures Guide' called The Sword Industry: recent history and future directions..

In it I made some predictions back in 2010 about what the industry would be like in the 'future' - i.e. NOW! Have a read at the unedited guesses and see how accurate I was or wasn't. And see me take another stab at predicting what the industry might look like in another 10 years time..

Obsidian can fracture down to one atom across and is 500 times sharper than we can get steel to be at its absolute sharpest (or something like that).

Now THAT would be your ultimate backyard cutter... But I digress, this is after all a sidenote, not a time to talk about the ultimate sword of the future..

Indeed, while times were tough and many companies teetered on the edge of extinction (and quite a few did go under, some of whom were good personal friends) new companies started springing up all over the place to fill the void. But the basic model that had build the sword industry up had changed, and most forges in China have been dying a slow death for the last 10 years.

Add to this every sword maker now afraid to take a risk, the variety of swords on the market decreased dramatically, dominated by 'safe' products (i.e. Katana and Longswords) as few manufacturers wish to take any risks anymore..

So SBG decided if everyone else was only going to make Longswords and Katana, we would branch Project X in a new direction, and from it came one of our most interesting and successful collaborations to date, Project X - Forge Direct.

A branch out of the basic Project X idea to introduce a range of traditional Chinese swords and even fantasy 'Wuxia' pieces made by Masters Smiths.

Initially we were a bit reluctant to reveal them, but eventually we introduced them to you all, Masters like Michael Ye (pictured below) who is exceptionally skilled at Spinsteel and Windsteel, but can also make a quick but beautiful Jian.

Then there are the brothers Jiang, especially Master Xiaolong Jiang - whose series of Custom Katana (Forge Direct Custom Katana) are some of the finest Japanese style cutting swords we have ever seen (and during the current downtime, are further being refined and improved).

And then along came the biggest maker and specialist in Chinese swords, the famous Baojian Forge - growing Forge Direct grew into a powerhouse for premium quality, certified Master Smith Forged Chinese Swords not seen anywhere else (at least, not the real thing - there are plenty of fakes and copies).

Things were finally starting to turn a corner for the better, and the industry felt like it was taking more risks. We certainly were, starting an ambitious project that fell flat - the Legendary Swords Project - but out of it came some cool prizes, and truly original designs that I would love to find a way to make it work - and to some degree it still continues to this day, with a project coming very close to completion - a limited run of Zelda inspired Master Swords (which we hope will be ready in time for Christmas)..

But all of this came to a screeching halt as a certain animal to human Coronavirus variant of SARS made the human to human jump, and the world as we know it changed forever... (I recall watching the virus first reported as 'over' and the only transmissions were animal to human. By the time it came to leave Japan, it was already spreading around the world - very lucky for a good friend of mine whose new wife just got her fiance visa and moved to Australia in December, one month later and they would be separated and unable to even meet each other. So many sad stories like this must be commonplace).

Curiously, with more people at home bored - and others concerned about the possible total breakdown in society, sword and knife sales INCREASED - especially of the tactical style...

I'm not sure if Hanwei could see the future, but their A.P.O.C. line had 6 new models added just as the outbreak started getting serious - which makes for for a bit of a scary coincidence..