CAS Iberia and Bugei Trading - A Partnership 30 years in the Making
June 7, 2019
CAS Iberia and Bugei Trading joined forces to continue the legacy of the Bugei name earned over nearly 40 years leading the Samurai sword market. After the retirement of a founding partner, James Williams and his son, Christopher, plan to continue to develop samurai swords of the highest standard to Bugei’s own specification. CAS Iberia proudly partners with Bugei by being the new headquarters and worldwide distributor for the brand from Sale Creek, TN USA.
The first step in the CAS-Bugei partnership was the continuation of the current line of Bugei swords. The second step is a new sword project, the Mukade Katana, which will be revealed at Blade Show 2019. The Mukade project was a truly continent spanning collaboration as the design and concept are by James and Christopher Williams with fittings brought to life by renowned metal artist Roman Urban. A 10-piece limited edition of the exceptional Mukade was made by Paul Chen’s son, Ron Chen, as a sole authorship project of his own forge in Taiwan. A semi-production Mukade sword crafted by the Dragon King forge will be released under the CAS Bugei brand in 2026.
The CAS Bugei brand of swords continues to be made in Dalian, China at the Dragon King forge under the direction of Frenchie Jin. Many of the premier artisans and swordsmiths from the (now closed) Hanwei forge joined Frenchie, former protege and engineer of Paul Chen, when he started his own company years after leaving the company. Many of the forgers and polishers working on Frenchie's team were the pioneers of the original Bugei and Hanwei swords that defined what many refer to as the Golden Age of Swords in the United States during the 2000s. At his time, we're upgrading the tools of many of the legacy Bugei models so future generations have enjoy the premier blades in the next century.
Founded by James Williams in 1993, Bugei Trading along with then newly completed Hanwei forge by Paul Chen brought the first functional production samurai swords to the US market. Shortly thereafter Barry Ross, President and founder of CAS Iberia, began working with Paul to expand the range of Hanwei’s smiths by tasking them to produce functional, affordable reproduction European swords and Japanese style swords of Paul’s own design. Ever since the Hanwei forge has produced the Bugei and CAS range of swords side-by-side, it seemed only natural to solidify our partnership.