Lareon

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

Chinese copy? Not sure yet. Not feeling it!

Very wide Notare hamon. Quite a lot of pitting here and there, looks a bit like stainless steel also almost looks cast.

The habaki looks odd. Modern and doesnt fit.

The rest of the fittings look fairly normal. Some damage to the saya

The fuchi has no button but the tsuka has a slot for the clip and the tsuba and seppa are pierced.

Strange kabutogane pin? Would this be what pins a mon

"you're about to go through a tragic breakup in the near future"

At the end of last year I posted up a topic on a gunto unboxing for one I had bought unseen. The time has come again and On Wednesday (UK time) I should be getting another. I've seen the the mounts but not the Sword itself so who knows (most likely nothing but that's the fun!) On wednesday I'll update this thread with the first pictures when i've got it in hand

Lovely...

I'm sure this is just lost in translation?

I also would like to know if that plain wood saya on there should have a leather cover? i've never seen the plain wood beneath the leather cover just the black lacquer ones

This is a much older blade in mounts that looks a little put together that I saw a while ago. it has a pierced tsuba and a wooden saya but no leather cover over it, no idea what's going on with it but it has a few interesting bits and pieces

Here are a few of my early naval mounts

Parcelforce as soon as available you can call and pay the invoice but only after its released by customs. Or you have to wait a few days after for the letter. I usually see it on tracking and call. If you use the 9706.00.00.00 there's no need to put replica sword down for UK purposes as it is perfectly legal to import. This also gives you the 5% duty rate. A replica blade made after 1954 would be illegal to import and if it is not 100 years old would be 20% vat anyway. simply putting replica blade is something I'd avoid to put on the import declaration. A curious border force inspection may ask why the replica is an antique over 100 years old and ask for more paperwork. I have on multiple times had to email supporting information on the age of an item held in customs. See below an email I received from the clearance bureau ---+ Hello, Thank you for your email. Can you please provide an invoice for what you have purchased, and provide the year of manufacture for this as well. Kind Regards, -- name redacted -- Customs Clearance Bureau Parcelforce Worldwide ----

Would be vary wary of this tactic. Technically it should not have passed customs as only traditionally made swords and swords before 1954 are allowed when the blade is longer than 50cm. You can import for event based purposes but will need to prove membership to such an event or club to customs to that's the only way a replica would be allowed in legally

I do this a lot. I've imported last year 3 times and have 5 swords currently coming to the UK from two different auctions in the USA. I usually request ups as even though it takes longer. It converts to parcelforce In the UK which are one of the only sword carrying services, I hate parcelforce but I'd rather that than the item returned to sender. I always put harmonic tarrif 9706.00.00.00 Antique over 100 years. I also write a description of the sword and "relief requested" I then ask the shipper to include this in the documentation attached to the package Including the invoice. I expect to pay 5% at the border. The process can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months worse case. Currently have one being shipped with ups and even though I asked for ups the other auction house has shipped with DHL express. This is currently on hold in the USA and. Assuming I'm going to have issues as I'm pretty sure DHL don't carry swords in the UK anymore, I reckon I'll have to argue for them to refund that postage and ship again with ups once the items are returned to them. So that will definitely be a hassle. The ups item is scheduled for tomorrow but it will most likely be held in high value storage at customs for a while and not be delivered for a while yet.

This isn't a piece of crap. I don't know what you paid but it is something I would buy, I nearly bought a fire damaged RTJ which to most is worthless just to save it from poor care / being lost. The polish on yours is brash sure and I'm not a big fan of that but there's plenty to like about it other than the polish I've bought a lot worse swords simply because I've wanted them. I'm sad you've changed your mind and think that your purchase isn't good and is s**t. It all depends on your collecting goals though. Think back to why you originally wanted it. those reasons haven't changed.

I'd be interested to find out more about the straight blade. "Kanbun style"

I have a gunto with what looks to be celluloid. The mounts in general are quite high quality. Yoshiharu blade

So with this information, if the sword was produced by Sadahiro in 1942 and he was born in 1925 then he was 17 when he made this sword, interesting I will grab that e-book too although i kind of want the hardcover of it too so might wait and buy those - i think the ebook comes with that from what i saw on his website

here is a one piece fuchi seppa on this "ornate gunto"

Here's some more pictures of the mounts and fittings. I can't get any more photos of the nakago at the moment but when it arrives (a month ish) I can take some better photos than these I bought it for the early Kaigunto mounts and sword hanger primarily

I've added one more, but there's no other photos of the mei to upload that are any better. I'll have the sword in hand probably in a months time. Thanks!