pcfarrar

The Labour Party want to ban swords completely so we’ve got that to look forward to soon too. 

For anyone in the UK the Royal Mail are banning all bladed items from April 22nd 2024. This Includes sharp scissors 

"You must not send any item that has a blade, in particular, ‘Bladed Articles’ as defined by the Criminal Justice Act 1988 or ‘Bladed Products’ as defined by the Offensive Weapons Act 2019. Such items include, but are not limited to, any knife blade, any kitchen knife (regardless of size or design), bread knives, knives that can be used for hobbies and trades (regardless of whether they are marketed as knives, for instance, utility knives and snap-off cutters), gardening and farming tools that have a blade, any trade tool that could commonly be described as a knife, butcher’s knives (including meat cleavers), cutlery knives, scissors with sharp edges, sporting equipment with a blade, replica and antique knives (including those used for re-enactment purposes), handmade and bespoke knives, open razors (where the blade is exposed), any axe, any sword, survival knives, or machete"

I've got a Jakushi tsuba signed " Kizaemon Jakushi"  presumably the 2nd generation.

NBTHK for some reason didn't see the feint signature and papered it to Nanban.

13 hours ago, Shugyosha said:

Well Peter Yorke died recently who was both a dealer and collector but I don’t know how serious his “habit” was. 

He had one of the largest collections in the UK. Including some very good swords. The numbers quoted are accurate from what I’ve heard. 

Auction will be later in the year apparently.

On 12/27/2020 at 2:23 PM, vajo said:

The good news is.

NO TAXES! Nothing will change between Europe and GB in selling and buying stuff.

That's not correct unfortunately. The EU is now treated the same as non EU countries (we aren't in the single market or customs union) so buying a sword from someone in the EU is the same as from Japan/USA etc. Anyone in the UK will need to pay the 5% VAT for an antique over 100 years old.

There is also now the new pre-paid VAT scheme that dealers in the EU and elsewhere in the world will need to sign up for to ship to the UK. This has some significant monthly costs and requires the business to send the VAT payments to the UK. I believe the EU is starting a similar scheme soon.

Maybe they listed it as antique ?

 

The customs state 100 years old or more. Kind of annoying really, buy a traditionally made sword from WW2 and get no reduction, seems unfair.

 

Maybe im missing something about "art" stuff, not sure, just go off the antique/100 years old.

I've had 5% on gendaito / shinsakuto you need to mark it as a collectable with the correct code.

Now, what I see that works well with French customs, is that they love to have an excess documentation, so I guess it’s the same in UK.

I don't think UK customs ever read the documentation in the package or stuck to the side. Every shipment I've ever had the document pouch has been untouched.

They only seem interested in the customs description and value on the shipping label.

Use USPS Priority Mail, a friend shipped one from the US to UK a few weeks ago and it arrived in less than a week.

I know here in U.K we are due to yet another update to our laws regarding knives and blades which i think comes into affect end of October, but as far as i know that is regarding posting restriction or ban and importing certain blades ,and also knives like spring assisted knives are to be banned.But i'm thinking now that this is a U.K. Ebay bidding problem, because i went onto U.S. Ebay and put bid on a tanto there ,without bid getting blocked.I checked customs here and they have no problem with "antique swords or knives" at the moment until new restrictions come in affect.

We haven't been able to bid on most sword auctions since eBay UK put the block on 10 years ago. There have been loopholes for swords listed in different categories but it looks like eBay have finally closed those now.

Thought I might as well update this old post. I submitted it for shinsa in Japan as I didn't want to have the mei removed without confirmation it was definitely gimei, it failed but was advised to have it removed and resubmit. So after having the mei removed, I resubmitted and it came back as Sandai Soshu Tsunahiro.

Yes Kyodai Originals in the Netherlands. Thanks for all your information!

Guess you didn’t notice that the website has a few questionable swords on it.

I was wondering, how was it possible to have two swords with (what I believe) exactly the same mei ????

They probably came from the same Edo period sword dealer, easy way to get some extra profit on a sword.

I'd send a letter to the address on the BOR286 form explaining the problem. It's quite possible that they sent the cheque and it got lost in the post...

I had a sword which was sent from Japan and was charged the full rate instead of the 5%. All you need to do is download the form below:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/581510/bor286.pdf

Also include a brief letter giving an explanation of why the item is over 100 years old. It took 2 weeks for me to receive a reply, and then 2 weeks later I got a cheque back for the difference.

I’ll take this sword please John.

I'm not very confident but here are my answers:

1. Shape and length suggest shin-shinto, hamon is definitely Bizen and it reminds me of a Sukenaga I saw recently. So my answer is Bizen Yokoyama Sukenaga, Tenpo period.

2. Shape suggests kanbun period, kesho yasurimei just don’t fit with Hizen, I’m guessing it’s possibly an Osaka Shinto smith, my guess is Shinano no Kami Nobuyoshi.

3. Shape suggests koto and the bo-hi terminating in the kissaki is also something you’d expect to see on a koto sword. The hamon is also quite different on both sides particularly in monouchi. It has a nice tight ko-itame jigane visible in places.  I’m going to go for Yamato Tegai late kamakura period.

I think it will be this proposal:

https://www.change.org/p/sajid-javid-reconsider-the-offensive-weapons-bill-for-fencers-and-hobbyists

I think you’ll be fine it’s not unusual to see odd tracking entries with the Royal Mail.

I wouldn’t expect any tracking updates for at least a week yet.

When was the parcel shipped? It's not unusual for it to take 2-3 weeks before you get updates from Australia. It will update on the Australia post website before the Royal Mail site.

If you've got an Android/iOS phone, install one of the parcel tracking apps, set the tracking number to australia post and it will notify you the minute the tracking number gets updates.

What does it say when you put the tracking number in the Australian post website?

Parcelforce global priority is your only choice for a long sword in the UK. You definitely can't use Fedex, and that also means you can't use Parcelforce Global Express which is outsourced to Fedex.

If it's a tanto you can use Royal Mail tracked and signed but I would still recommend using Parcelforce.

Here’s my Naoaki (has NBTHK Hozon)

When using buyee I always change my item from "weapons" to "antiques" before shipping. It would be much better with buyee if you could actually amend the item description manually instead of having to choose something from a list.

The original owner had Roger look at in hand and he is happy that the  mei is correct

You should be ok then, Roger helped me with a couple of my Hizen and both turned out to be fine after they were sent to Japan.

Paul Martin is definitely the best choice, his prices are very reasonable and he has access to the best people in Japan. I will also be sending another blade through his service next year.

Contact Paul Martin on my behalf. He is coming to England in November or December and he can perhaps take swords back to Japan

He’s not coming until March 2018 to collect swords, but yes Paul Martin is the best choice.

Also Grev have you checked with Roger Robertshaw to see if the mei is good?