We have been refining the way that we fulfil Club orders over the past year or so, and are wanting to bed down some regular protocols to avoid some of the difficulties that we have encountered over the past few months.

In particular, when putting in our Tozando orders, we have often been caught out by the slow pace that wooden weapons are currently being manufactured in Japan. This is down to a range of factors including fewer artisans working in the industry post-COVID, problems with securing supply of raw materials, especially Japanese white oak, and global supply chain issues that have slowed the shipping of orders once ready.

In response we will be putting in a “recommended guide to purchasing from Tozando” page in the members section of the website, which will put our recommendations and experience with specific items. Next, we will be separating orders into “fast ship items”, which are those that are usually to hand and will ship quickly” and “slow ship items” such as wooden weapons and custom items that may take weeks or months to made before they are ready to ship.

Third, we will be posting a step-by-step guide to placing your order through the Club so that this can be done as smoothly as possible. This will be your go-to information source, and hopefully avoid having to resend the same information out each time.

I will try to have both guides up ASAP, but certainly in the next week.

I’m hoping that we can make our next order within the fortnight — uniforms and shinai, so that they can make it in time for upcoming events. Remember that ordering through the Club allows us to pass on savings, and the larger the order, the bigger the saving as a percentage overall.