Surface shipping!

[Amon]

Hi all!

 

Waiting for a sword to arrive from Japan but since Ems and Sal

has banned swords it has been shipped with Surface shipping.

Does anyone has experience from Surface shipping,

good or bad?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Best regards,

[Henry Wilson]

I have posted clothes from the UK to Japan and it took ages. I think about 7 weeks. The boxes were a bit beat up too on arrival if I recall, but being clothes they were not packed that tight.

[sanjuro]

I recently had a very nice naginata in full koshirae shipped by surface from Japan to Australia. It arrived in excellent condition and the packaging was not bashed around at all. My regret is that the length restrictions required I cut the ebu down to 100 cm, but in this case the ebu was fairly badly deteriorated and has since been repaired and reconstituted.

(Henry will recall this as he took me to task on another forum for having it cut in the first place.) The package arrived six weeks almost to the day from when it was posted.

 

The secret I think is packing the thing with a bit of reinforcement to guard against lateral stresses, and a whole heap of bubble wrap. srrounded by stout cardboard. Then assume a position of prayer and maintain it until the package arrives. It can be a bit of a nervous wait.