Lareon

8th month of the 19th year of showa

A touch of staining around the end of the blade. The hamon is bright and clear. No damage I can see. A few scratches

Typical type 3 fittings. Heavy Metal saya with dust guard throat.

Well I'll move onto the next one for now but still revisit anything anyone wants too see or know about this one

I will start my own thread about this as things progress. I posted my appeal letter today so will get a reply within 15 days now. When I get an update I'll make a thread and can go through the process. Maybe there are some things I did wrong that I don't know about or maybe they're over zealous but I shall find out and it will hopefully be of benefit to the community.

If people want I can take measurements. Sori etc.

Almost no curve to this

The blade is quite scratched up so photos are hard but looks like choji now

Heavy pitting on the blade. Hard to photo the hamon. Struggling but looks like a horsetooth hamon.

Interesting. The other side seems to have a different menuki.

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