Damascus Ice #1 Auction

October 1st, 2011

The auction for # 001/250 of the Damascus Ice limited edition is now up on eBay here. Bid early and often. It is recommended that you also buy the sword through our site, in case you bid and do not win the auction, that way you have on to fall back on. In the case you do win we can just change your order and bill you the difference between the normal price and wherever the auction ends up.

Posted in: General | 15 Comments »

Damascus Ice to go on sale October 1st

September 28th, 2011

The Damascus version of Ice will go on sale October 1st at 12 Noon Eastern US Time. There tends to be some competition for ordering these products and so we’re announcing the exact date and time in advance.

The first person ordering will get dibs on #2, the second dibs on #3, and so on. You can request a higher number than you’re order slot, but not a lower number. #1 will be auctioned on eBay soon. If you plan on bidding in the auction we still recommend purchasing a sword in this release, if you win the auction you we will then just switch your number to #1. If you do not win the auction you would still have a fall back though.

The order page is up now so you can view pictures and product information. But it isn’t able to be ordered from yet.

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Sword Maintenance

September 15th, 2011

We get questions from time to time about sword maintenance. This post will henceforth serve as a location for such information.

Presently we make swords out of three materials, maintenance needs will depend on the material.

Stainless Steel

If your sword is made from stainless steel, such as Longclaw or Ice it needs almost no maintenance. Stainless steel isn’t fully rust proof, over a very long period of time it can still show some corrosion. You should do your best to keep it out of water and keep fingerprints off it. The acid in a fingerprint can, if left on the blade over a long period (months, years), still mark it. But generally, hanging up, unless someone touches it, you need to do nothing.

High Carbon Steel

If your sword is made from high carbon steel, such as Needle it needs maintenance. Ambient humidity can cause pitting, as well as actual water and finger prints. The blade should be wiped with a soft cloth after any handling, and you should keep it oiled or waxed regularly. Mineral oil works, as well as any oil sold or labeled for use with knives or guns, do not use a vegetable oil. For a more long term solution a product called Renaissance Wax is available. If the sword becomes pitted or rusted you will need to polish it with a product like Metal Glo. High carbon steel swords will ship to you with an oil coating on, but even that is not foolproof, so they should not be stored long term.

Damascus Steel

Damascus steel is a blend of two types of high carbon steel, so all that is true for high carbon steel is true for damascus steel. Except because it is so much more valuable you should be even more vigilant. Also, if your damascus does get blemished, be careful when polishing so that you do not wear off the patina. Test the polish first in a small spot.

Handle Parts

All our handle parts have a protective finish and should not need any maintenance.

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Sales and Releases

September 13th, 2011

We have decided to put LONGCLAW and NEEDLE on sale, ending Saturday the 24th. We wanted to put them on sale for some period before the end of the year, and this is a good slow patch between book/TV show releases, and the busy Christmas season. ICE is not on sale, as it is still a new release. So right now both LONGCLAW and NEEDLE are $20 off.

GRRM has officially approved the Damascus ICE. We will make 250 of them, they will be $700 each. Preorders will open in about two weeks (probably also on the 24th) and it could be in your hand sometime in November. We will announce the exact date and time of the preorder opening in advance.

King Robert’s Warhammer is in the prototyping stage, we’ve had one prototype made and are making a second. Preorders may open before the end of the year, but you wouldn’t likely see it in hand until late Spring 2012.

The Night’s Watch obsidian dagger set is also in the prototyping stage. If we can get it done quickly, it could start to ship before the end of the year. I am hoping it will. But it will be in limited quantities.

Damascus Oathkeeper is currently in the concept art stage. Nothing to show yet.

Posted in: General | 26 Comments »

Hammer Time

August 29th, 2011

Here are some looks of our Robert’s Warhammer Prototype.

We’ve found that the head is so heavy we need to reinforce the haft more so we’re going to have another prototype made with a stronger haft before going into production. This will delay the ultimate on-sale date of the item by at least a couple months.

But it is one big bad hammer.

Posted in: General | 31 Comments »

Ice has Shipped

August 4th, 2011

Probably about 90% of the Ice preorders have shipped, we’re working on getting tracking numbers to those who have not yet received them. Others who received them early will start seeing activity. Still, some of you may receive the sword before your tracking number.

Damascus Longclaws will head out by August 9th.

Posted in: General | 65 Comments »

Social Reach of “Game of Thrones”

July 23rd, 2011

Far be it for anyone to accuse us of not being a cheerleader for the HBO series. We definitely want it to do well, and we like to cheer it when it does do well. Our facebook fan page is nearing 5,000 people, but the Game of Thrones series page just passed 1 million. I don’t know if it is the fastest to 1 million ever, but it did seem pretty fast.

I decided to do some analysis comparing Game of Thrones social reach to some other acclaimed cable TV shows.

I included Breaking Bad and Mad Men, even though they’re not on premium channels, because they are perennial emmy competition. I also included a handful of shows that are off the air now, those have been marked with an asterisk.

Surely the number of Facebook likes a series has will depend on the genre and the demographic it appeals to. The younger the demographic, the more wired the demographic, the more likely you are to get the Facebook love. However, parents and even grandparents are getting on Facebook now, the world changes.

Why is this sort of metric important? Well, Facebook is the new water cooler, this is where people get recommendations from their friends, this is where people discover new media and new content. The number of facebook likes lends itself both as an indicator of a show’s success, and as a predictor of future viewership growth. The more fans you have, the more new fans those current fans can introduce.

So, Game of Thrones is doing pretty good. It is no Dexter, no True Blood, but it spanks Boardwalk Empire, and destroys shows like Camelot and The Borgias, and even The Tudors, which had years to gain fans.

To be fair, shows that have been on for 6 seasons have had more time to accumulate fans. So I did another graph, I did total air time for a series, from the date of the premier to today, rounding it off as necessary to keep things simple. In the case of series that are now off the air I did premier to finale dates, or simply gave them credit in years for the number of completed seasons.

So this graph shows the average yearly number of likes a show has received since premiering.

Here, Game of Thrones knocks the pants off of everyone. The only close competition is The Walking Dead, which I liked, and thought was a decent show, but the writing wasn’t nearly as good. Often in that show the characters did really dumb things, and there were a couple plot holes. Of course I am almost assuredly biased, and in truth they aren’t even that close.

So, this is just another metric that shows how successful Game of Thrones has been. Let us hope it keeps up.

Posted in: HBO Series | 2 Comments »

Ice to start shipping Wednesday

July 22nd, 2011

Ice will be leaving our facilities and going out to customers starting Wednesday. At that point it won’t quite be “in stock” because we’ll be playing catch up for a week or so and moving the bulk of them (that are left), to our Michigan warehouse from our LA warehouse. But, by the second week of August it should be to the point where any new orders would ship within 24 hours. Thank you everyone for your patience, especially those of you who ordered way back last October.

On the Damascus Longclaw, we have some final prep to do so we have to wait until they’re trucked here to Michigan, so those won’t go out for another week to 10 days or so.

Posted in: General | 30 Comments »

Ice Update

July 18th, 2011

We are going to start processing orders for Ice, so you may receive a shipping confirmation. This does not mean your order has shipped. It merely means we have printed the label. We have so many orders to get through that we want to print all the labels up in advance so that the swords can get back out as soon as possible. So, when you see an email and see an email saying your order has shipped, you can get excited, just not too excited.

This is also your last chance to change your address if it has changed.

All of this is applicable for the Damascus Longclaw as well.

Posted in: General | 24 Comments »

A Dance with Dragons almost here!

July 10th, 2011

If you’ve not ordered it yet (and plan to) what are you waiting for? It is not too late to order from Amazon and have it delivered to you on the 12th, you don’t even have to get out of your pajamas.

In related news, guess which 5th book in a fantasy series is #1 on Amazon right now? A Dance with Dragons. Considering Amazon’s huge sample size that probably means it is the #1 book in the world right now. Guess what number 2 is? The 4 book boxed set of A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows. So, the top 5 selling books worldwide right now are the 5 A Song of Ice and Fire books. How cool is that? I’m giddy about it and I’m not even George R.R. Martin.

In other related news, a week after A Dance with Dragons is released, the 2012 ASOIAF calendar will be released. In previous years this has sold out, leaving many fans without one, so I would order it soon.

Finally, please remember, NO SPOILERS. Please do not post a comment on any post on this blog referencing anything from the plot of A Dance with Dragons until at least August 12th, giving everyone 1 month grace time to read it. If you post a spoiler it will be deleted anyways, so just don’t do it. If there is a cool sword in ADWD you want us to manufacture… don’t email us, please, we’re readers too, and maybe we’re not reading as fast as you, we have swords to ship out and everything afterall. So, just wait, wait until August 12th, then we can all talk about it. Thank you.

Posted in: General | 3 Comments »

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