First off, if you haven't already, we strongly recommend you check out the official guide for Christmas 2022 on the main site below:

It contains useful and up to date information and recommendations on what date you need to get your Christmas Sword shopping wrapped up by (hint - it is VERY close), how to find the perfect sword for someone else, the top 10 swords recommended for 2022 and the biggest mistake you need to avoid to prevent a Christmas disaster of epic proportion.

All read? Good - let's take a look at some of the offerings from our favorite sword sellers for Christmas 2022 - whether it is a gift for a loved one or just a cheeky opportunity to grab one of the best deals of the season.

Kult of Athena are of course most people's first choice when it comes to online sword shopping generally, and they have conveniently compiled a list from their extensive catalog of what they consider to be the best buys of the Christmas season with their own shopping guide listed below:

Now of course, what you find there depends on how soon you read this after we publish the digest, as the best stuff tends to sell out fast - and this year is no exception.

But here is what I am personally interested in..

Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales have come and gone, and with just a little more than 3 weeks to go before Christmas, the peak of the 'Silly Season' is upon us. While generally inventories are fairly well stocked compared to the previous 2-3 years, much of the best stuff has or is currently being snapped up, so it might be a slow and sorry start to 2023..

Unfortunately though, the "Swordpocalypse" is upon us - and as Canada in particular seems to be making it harder for sword buyers to receive their swords from abroad, even the other options such as third party shipping services are starting to fail us..

A bit hit and miss with swords at the best of times, a former ally of the community - Planet Express - has seemingly turned on us..

There had been 'rumblings' for a few months, but after a customer of ours in Canada was told that Planet Express would NOT forward it to them (mid transit by the way) and instead demanded the customer pay a whopping $126 for DOMESTIC US shipping to their rivals, MyUS (more than the cost of shipping it to the customer in Canada!) along with storage fees if it is not paid promptly..

We took the hit for the customer and refunded them in full - but upon reaching out to Planet Express on more than one occasion to clarify their withdrawal of support for the sword community and express our disapproval at their behavior, was met with complete silence.. (well, apart from a generic corporate email when we deleted our own personal account with them!).

As such, despite being the company to reach out to us directly when all other third party shippers were being difficult with sword shipments, it would appear that Planet Express have no interest to support sword collectors and have seemingly decided that we are simply not worth the extra effort and paperwork..

Everyone's loss I am afraid, and acceleates the trend for the sword industry to become increasingly regional and 'geo-locked' into small (and expensive) domestic markets and small monopolies in yet another blow to our struggling industry..

But the total lack of communication and usurious charges by Planet Express need to be brought to light - if you are using them, we strongly suggest you switch to one of the other forwarders such as MyUS, US Global Mail, Forward It, etc.

"Sword Air", where are you when we need you!?!

We are still a long way from the likely evolution of the sword industry combining A.I. designs with 3d printers. But here are some shiny, electroplated decorative swords that suggest we might enter the brave new world of 3d printed swords sooner rather than later..

It might not be lucky for that much longer, as international sword shipping (especially with regards to Canada) seems to be getting harder and harder. But the Canadian World Cup team are still taking their lucky sword with them - and explain why they chose it as a symbol. Let's hope they can keep it with them on their travels as restrictions seem to get tighter and tighter..

We often hear of swords from the Viking age being dredged up, but recently a sword dating back to the Kalmar war (Sweden/Denmark circa 1611–1613) has been found in an excavated cellar and is a snapshot of the evolution of the Scandinavian sword in time.

In the golden age of Hollywood, Sword and Sandal movies were a staple and include some of the most epic movies ever made. Here are some true classics of the genre.

A whole treasure trove of high resolution images, including over 600 medieval manuscripts, are available online in the Art of Reading in the Middle Ages collection.

Getting good information on Scottish Two Handed swords just got a lot easier with the article linked by the OP. Very detailed and a lengthy read - well worth the effort!

Is it possible? If so, how? If not - what are the alternatives when you have a new tsuka that you want to attach but aren't sure how to line up the holes.. Find out here.

Great thread with lots of twists and turns - what kind of tsuba do the forumites prefer? Round? Square? Sukashi? Mokko? Find your favorite here.

No sword maker goes out of their way to make lemons. But we all know that some are more prone to making them than others. Here, SBG members reveal some of their shoddiest buys.

It's only a short (3min) video, but the channel, the sword and the video itself is a good one. While there are very few reproductions out there, maybe there should be more:

They might not have been pretty, but were likely more common than the more elegant blades of the medieval era - and no where near as awkward or heavy as might first be assumed based on their appearance.

Always good to see more obscure sword types.