Lareon

Ishizuki is gone Looks to have been rewrapped at some point but the wrap looks to have age. Nice release button. The sarute is non decorative. There's a small hole on the kabutogane. From a missing Mon?

Yes it was quite shocking, didn't expect the police to turn up at my door. Thought if there was some kind of issue with the import it could be dealt with via telephone or email or something. Its a waste of everyone's time to go to the trouble of doing this as I'm clearly in the right and have obeyed the law. I just hope the blades aren't destroyed as I bought them from Kraft specifically to preserve them as they hadn't been cared for.

Which of these are we interested in first.

Yes I believe so. If you lose the case though you potentially have to pay borderforces costs

I have to write a letter to border force requesting a court proceeding to appeal the seizure of the items. The items may be destroyed though so I will only get my money back if that is the case. I'm hoping they aren't so aggressive and destroyed them as that would be such a loss.

Trouble is he gave me the printout which clearly has the exception on it. Then he told me it's illegal to have them in your house. I questioned him a few times on that and he eventually relented. He left me the helpful document he printed.

I didn't receive a c160 form no. I did supply an addendum to the invoice describing it with the correct customs import code. that I asked the auction house to put on the box I also supplied this to DHL and customs

They are both traditional. One koto and one star stamped gendaito. I assume it's to do with the documentation as I did notice Kraft auction house put machine made blade on the star stamped gendaito but it still would be before 1954 so they're all above board. It's all happening at the moment. The police just turned up again a minute ago to tell me it's illegal to own swords... Gave me a print out from Google of the law and I had to tell them the exceptions. To appeal the siezure is a court process. They didn't give a reason for the confiscation.

Well hold your hat. I had the police at my door yesterday. And today j got a notice of siezure for 2 swords coming from America. So now I have to go to court if I want them back..

Well after the disappointment of the last unboxing culminating in a refund I've got another package waiting to be opened with two gunto in. I'll do this later today just for all of you guys across the pond. Gunto unboxing 1: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/37867-gunto-unseen-unboxing/

Well that's the thing isn't it. The right customer. To a well trained eye, who knows the value of something as a collector is one thing. To the average Joe whos first impressions is "wow genuine samurai sword" with all the connotations that gives them it could feel like it's worth it. In the UK at least the average price for a 95 that I see is close to £700. The most I've ever paid is £400. I would only pick up a 95 now for a copper handle if I spot one for a price I think is a deal, sadly I've rarely ever seen one in the UK and I'm not sure id risk buying one in the usa then it being siezed by border force on import. Different here as swords are generally rarer and importing machine made swords is illegal so there is less supply.

I've used wise a number of times and it's been very reliable with tracking of the payment and receipts too. I sent a large amount with it recently and was also nervous about getting everything right. In the end I'm glad I used wise

With all those Seppa you could make the nakago fit the tsuka easily. Just keep adding them till the hole lines up. Same with the saya fit. I have one similar to this. It's a jumble of parts and clearly put together to fit an older blade (in my case). Has tsuba with a piercing hole and then the dai Seppa have none, the fuchi also has no retaining clip or button in it and is too large for the tsuka. In my case I think a post war put together. Who knows though what went on in the war when times were tough. If you could get something to work then maybe that was good enough.

I was happy with my first unboxing, was simply a showa sword and the second one well...i got a refund on that :D

Just a quick follow up to this. I took some more photos, very beautiful hamon that I really love.

I really love the hamon on this too. Double peaks with another small section of tobiyaki above

Got mine out to have a look again and took some decent photos of the mounts and saya

Bit of better lighti managed to get the hamon to come out a little. Looks to change between choji and gunome in places.

Picked up this damaged unsigned O-suriage blade. It's quite heavily oxidised and was difficult to photo the hamon or see any detail in the metal. Looks to be gunome hamon and a Kiri yasurime maybe The red rusty colour is from the lighting not the blade and I couldn't be bothered to steam or iron the backdrop (apologies for the wrinkles)

Ah cheers, i've never seen the disc version just the standard variations just never a perfect circle!

yes it was very poor, as soon as you get beneath the koshirae everything is awful. as soon as i saw the kabutogane at the first inspection i had my doubts as that small circular pin seemed so off. I wondered if it was some kind of mount for a mon or similar. the habaki though.... oh dear. after a brief inspection of the blade the hamon is brushed on, the steel is poor and then when you get to the nakago, oh my. nothing redeeming. luckily UK protection laws for counterfeit goods are strong so you can always get a refund on a counterfeit product. Next time!

One of the risks of buying them this way I guess! Disappointed of course but I am playing a dangerous game doing this haha! Well sorry guys it turned out to be a dud! The next time will hopefully be better!

Oh dear....

Ok so mekugi out, one piece fuchi Seppa looks poorly cut.