Brian

They want to know exactly what species of ray it is from, where it was harvested and how long ago. And once you tell them, they then want you to prove it. There are hundreds of species of ray, and some of them are endangered, so it's up to you to prove it isn't one of those. Which is impossible. They will keep shifting the goalposts until you give up. Bureaucracy at its finest

Something I can add. I'm currently in the process of looking to see if I can start sending some of the items in an extensive knife collection, to the USA. Far higher prices. I have someone who does international shipping, and she specializes in sending knives overseas. Joyce is the main person here who everyone uses, and has shipped hundreds of parcels. I have been chatting to her the past few days. The process is fairly straight forward. But she cautioned me on one thing. Apparently fairly randomly (and she says in the majority...but not all cases...if they go through the Atlanta hub) the item will be selected for a CITES inspection. This is where they will check if there are any parts at all made from any endangered wildlife parts. Not just ivory, but certain woods, skins etc etc. Even in cases where these parts aren't present, she says in those cases, the item is delayed every time by between 14 and 21 days before being released. Even if they have the correct docs, once it is pulled aside for SITES inspection, you can add 21 days or so before it's released. Sounds to me like you fell foul of one of these inspections, before they decided none of the parts were a problem. But congrats, that is great news, really happy for you.

Yeah, I think (and I'm no expert on these) that if it was some form of latch, it would be almost unheard of. I'd look for other explanations.

Assuming no fatal flaws, I would guess what you have is worth anywhere from about $900 upwards to whatever the quality ends up as.

Awesome pics! Thanks Piers.

Yeah, Gerald contacted me about joining. He's not a sword guy. But we aren't really a "make an offer" site. Maybe some can give him am idea of value, and he can set a price. Is it metal or wood inside, and what does the condition under the leather appear to be? Scabbards are fairly unique, they are not interchangeable. So the chances of another random WW2 sword fitting aren't good. So it won't sell easily to a random person looking for a scabbard. Maybe best to send to a dealer who goes to the shows. Not big money, but I guess maybe someone would gave $50-60?

Up to you, but I wouldn't post your number publicly. If it were me, I'd edit and say pm you for your contact details

Get some oil on it fast. Oil and wipe....continue for a few days. You need to stop that rust. Nothing abrasive. To me, appears to be quite an early sword mounted for the war, and one that is going to need some closer inspection as it appears it may have some potential. But condition is very poor. Possibly still saveable though with professional work. You need someone to look at it in hand.

Ah, didn't see you were in SA. Yeah, not too many places in SA to see the real deal. There are a handful of us collectors here in Jhb, and I'm sure a few in CT, but not sure. Drop me a message via pm with your details if you want to chat about it. Funny enough, just helping someone locally to value a collection of about 25 swords, they may come up for sale. Unusual, but let's see what happens. The secret is seeing as many real ones as you can, then the fakes stand out clearly. Browse the forum daily, you'll learn a bunch. I have some Japanese sword books I'm selling for someone if you are interested in any reference works, prices well under market value. Need to pull them out.

Just for the record...we do NOT delete accounts, not even on request. People are capable of not logging in if they do not want to participate. This isn't an airport, no need to announce your departure.

Some really lovely deals here. I like those shishi.

It's in his signature, all good here.

After checking it out, there doesn't appear to be a full download, and you can only preview a very limited number of pages. So I expect that one is ok and legit. I know there are full pdf's of the book floating around, I'd be more concerned about sharing those. This one should be fine

Just bear in mind those download links are to illegal downloads that break copyright. Tempted to remove it...not because I'm a stickler for law, but because I'm wary of the forum liability in sharing stuff like that. Hmmm....I need to think about this for a bit

The percentage of ones fully forged, folded and with decent hamon are a very small percentage of the total seen, and when you see them, they are usually in shirasaya or apart from average kozuka. Yes, of course they exist, but look at the way yours is signed compared to the usual "chicken scratch" type mei we see on most. Now show me one like yours in full polish in that condition that is original to an average kozuka and mounted that way from the Edo period? Again, they exist, but best to always consider them gimei until proven otherwise. Once you see a hamon with nie and hataraki, you can start looking closer at the mei.

Please add a price and do the advert in the for sale section, thanks.

Alex, I LOL'ed! Seriously good Photoshop skills. (Or is that AI work?) Is that a Lightning cable?

As per previous advice, kick up a HUGE storm. Email everyone from the CEO down. Emphasize that this is a unique, one of a kind item and is a cultural item, and that you are going to have to warn Japanese dealers against using USPS. Ask them who you put down as the person to contact since you will be opening a case with the police. Remind them that the Nihonto community is close, and that there have been a spate of these lately. Really go all out. It is my personal experience that the more you shake up the guys at top, the more change the item is "suddenly found" You have nothing to lose.

I'm pretty sure they are assembly numbers. Why stamp a longer number if you have less than 10 you are working on at that time, and want to make sure the parts go back together with the right sword. Lack of numbers on the other parts likely just means they were swapped at some stage. Or all the other parts were in a box marked 8, and they just had to find blade 8 to reassemble.

Damn. If only Gold membership would get you 500 messages in your inbox instead of 100. Oh wait...

Just a reminder to all, when you copy/paste a link from eBay, you can cut aaaaaalll those extra tracking cookie and sid and other data after the item number, then the link is very simple. Edited the one above.

Blade length is measured in a straight line along the back, from the tip to the notch where the habaki sits, the mune-machi.

The kogatata you can usually ignore the signature anyways. They were mostly honorific or a homage to smiths, and mostly not made by the person in the signature. The few that are, you'd need to be able to see the workmanship, hamon etc to know if it is, and it doesn't really affect much either way. Focus on the sword.

No such thing as tsuka being too difficult to remove unless it was glued in and that is unlikely. Have a search of the forum for remove tsuka, he should be able to do it without damaging anything. They were made to be taken apart. It's vital to see the blade complete and without fittings. Looks like a nice sword.