Long Quan is famous in China for the legendary quality of sword making. The town is located in a beautiful green Qinxi mountainous area with cold clear shining waters that make it poetically suited for the art of sword forging. The history of sword making in Long Quan goes back 2,600 years when the town was founded in the Spring & Autumn Period and the Warring Period.
Then Shen Family sword shop was started in 1896 in Long Quan, specializing in producing knives, swords and weapons for the army and many martial groups. The founder of the Shen sword forging shop was Shen Ting Zhang, originally from Bihiu, Chuzhou in Zhejiang. In 1915, there was a contest of the entire sword forging elites in the town of Long Quan. The Shen family sword proved capable of penetrating three copper coins and cut another sword maker’s sword in two pieces. The Shen sword was regarded as the “Champion of Swords.” In 1916 the Shen sword earned the Gold Award in the internationally known Panama Thousand Countries Fair. The Shen sword won the China National Art Contest in 1921 which was held in Nanjing and was appraised as the “Best Sword.” As the Shen sword reputation grew so did the sword forging shop.
Shen’s second generation, Shen Huan Zhou and Shen Huan Wu, were called upon in the 24th year of the Republic of China (1936) by the Zhejiang provincial government to make a birthday sword for the President, Chiang Kaishek for his 50th birthday. Chairman Mao was also presented a Shen sword on July 1, 1956. Longquan Sword that the PRC presented to President Nixon at the time of the normalization of Sino-US relations (1972) has a scabbard covered with snakeskin. The third generation master, Shen Xinpei, continued the sword forging secret crafts and added his innovations and research to further improve the sword quality. They have produced swords for the leaders of China and for many foreign countries. They also produced a number of swords for the martial stars of film and television.
Shen Guang Long is the sole and current fourth generation inheritor of the 100 year old famous Long Quan Sword forging shop. The shop has dramatically expanded the line of swords, including quality Katana swords for Japan. In 1981, Shen’s Cloud Sword (Texture Sword) won the China International Tourism Award. In 1991, Shen was the sole winner of the “Sword Forging Craft Master in all of China. In 1993, the “Sun & Moon, Heaven & Earth” swords obtained three gold medals at the 1st China Martial Art Apparatus Authentication Conference. The Shen Guang Long Sword Shop became listed as China’s historical “Chinese Old Famous Shops.” In 1996, the Zhi Zun sword won the Gold Award in China’s Civilian Art fair. Shen’s swords were designated as appropriate apparatuses for the 9th China National Martial Art Games in 2001.
In 2001, Shen collaborated with a Japanese Sword smith, Zhaiteng, adding capital to the forge shop to reach USD 1.5 million and then rebuilt the company in the sword industrial zone. The Shen sword shop built an area of more than 10,800 square meters has a working staff of about 380 people. All the products produced are mainly for export, so the swords have been supplied to many countries, such as the United States, France, Canada, Germany, Malaysia, Switzerland, Norway, Spain, etc. The Shen Family shop is fast becoming a leading manufacturer and supplier of various kinds of swords in the world. In 2004, the Shen Family took materials from outside of China and used age-old smelting and forging techniques to create the highly rare and valuable “Xuan Tian Sword.” The Shen Family swords were again selected for the prestigious for the 10th China National Games.
The Shen Family shop uses many different materials to forge the blade, including medium carbon steel 1045, high carbon steel 1060 and 1095 (clay-tempered), folded steel (Damascus steel), stainless steel, and folded & clay-tempered steel. All the Shen swords enjoy an excellent reputation in the world market, because of the fine quality, favorable prices with the best service. The annual export business amount reaches to about 3.5 million dollars. They have passed ISO 9000 Quality Control System Authentication, and also have an in-house quality control system and marketing team. Each procedure is strictly inspected, and only those up to the export standard are permitted to be exported. The Shen Family Sword Forge takes quality and reputation as their blood and life.