Well said, Naythan...I imagine the lure of gold (money) may have turned his pride on its ear. Its a paying gig, of that much I'm pretty sure of (otherwise I doubt he'd give them the time of day) - but it begs the question, only those of us 'in the know' in the "swording" world even know who this man is, so is it an attempt at 'legitimacy'? I wonder; because I never considered their stock wall hangers; rougher around the edges so to speak, less pretty, definitely more workmanlike. Though I've never handled any of their Mastercraft line, of the wares I have handled extensively, I've only had one or two of the wallhanger type (screw-on pommels are usually the deciding factor, a lot of their older stuff was of this type). I consider them on par with say Angelsword (though their wares are almost ten times the price for some truly awful looking stuff in some cases) or even DSA.
If this takes off, I expect the whole 'blackened armor' thing will take off too- because the armor's gotta match the sword, right? And black is the most lethal color of them all, everyone knows that.