Nickupero

Hi Gents, reaching out to anyone has any info or experience shipping to Bulgaria, is it permitted and did anyone use a certain carrier. Is the customs procedure different. Thanks in advance... Much appreciated.

I didn't realize all your reply's, thanks Thomas, Brian, and Ed.. much appreciated

Thanks Jon for shedding that light, much appreciated of your time!

Reviving an old topic here, does anyone know if sending nihonto to Israel is possible/ legal? Thanks to anyone in advance willing to share their knowledge / experiences.

Agree with you John, and for a dealers its bad, means money invested is sitting there twice as long before being able to turn it over.

The NBTHK receives an overwhelming amount of submissions these days, I am not surprised. You should have received a judgement by now, the actual paperwork takes longer. Took me over 5 months to get paperwork and sword back, it should be soon for you, hang in there. Recently I've submitted to NTHK & NTHK-NPO instead of the NBTHK, the wait time is couple months only.

Thanks for posting Brian, no hijacking there at all, just a small appreciated detour Driving around in that beauty means you'll be getting plenty of attention, maybe even from some bad people and what better way to protect yourself in style then with this tanto! Maybe I watch to many movies, I saw those suicide doors and my mind started to wonder!

After seeing pictures of your recent restoration I too would hold off on Nihonto collecting, being a vintage car enthusiast myself I'm the jealous one, what a beauty!!! Thank you Hamish and James for the support, unfortunately the papers don't mention which generation. A big thanks to Geraint and Grey for your input, Grey no worries as I appreciate you taking the time to give your input. I am always for education and if it means an item is discussed for these reasons you have my support 100%. So lets safely say its either Nobukuni Nidai or Sandai, feel free to post examples of Mei, little to busy lately to go through any reference books.

The best way to explain this is a cheap Chinese copy, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, hope you didn't pay much for it.

And now of the beautiful blade...

Hi Guys, have this pretty little set for sale. Both blade and koshirae marry well together. Blade is signed and dated, Mei reads Nobukuni and dated 1421AD 8th month. The workmanship is stunning and the fittings are elegant and have a strong presence. The Nagasa measures 23.9cm/ 9.41 inches. Blade has Fujishiro's papers and koshirae has NTHK papers. If you have questions please don't hesitate to contact me, price for members is $7,850US. Donation will be honored if sold here. Thx

Hi Louis, I'm dealer by day, collector by night and located in Montreal. Nice to see a good number of Canadian presence here!

Wow Paul, thank you kindly for the detailed reply. It's amazing how fedex choose to simply deny handling an item rather then have standards on how they want it packaged. I guess EMS is the way to go, like you I really enjoyed fedex's ability to clear items and always keep in close contact with both the sender and receiver, you pay for it but it's worth it. With Ems what is your suggested description ? To help things go smoother? Thanks again

Hi Gents, I just wanted to share with you all my recent experience with shipping to the UK from Canada using Fedex. Most of us know by now that Fedex Japan no longer handles nihonto but it appears Fedex UK is giving the same treatment. I sent 2 different swords within the span of a 1 weeks to 2 different clients and the same end result happened to both. Fedex refused to handle the blade for final delivery. I was taken back because only a couple months ago I sent 2 full sized katana and had no issues. UK customs is known to somethimes give a hard time with clearing pieces or at least take their sweet time, but in both cases fedex UK cleared each item with no issues (also because I supplied all the proper documentation) but after that fedex denied final delivery on the pieces, I spoke to them (specifically to the dangerous good specialist) and they absolutely refused to perform the final delivery and stated that the recepient would need to pick up the item or hire a private courrier to come pick it up from the airports fedex location. The first time thought it was an isolated case but when the same thing happened to the 2nd piece I was honestly shocked. Just for the record Fedex Canada and Fedex US has no issues but it looks like UK has adopted the same regulations as Fedex Japan. With all that being said is Royal Mail still accepting the shipping of swords? One of the clients loved the piece so much he's considering to get another, what is an alternate shipping method for those of our friends in the UK or that have shipped to the UK? .... keeping in mind that they are more recent cases. Thanks in advance for those who give their input!!!

Been away for a bit on business and I haven't checked in for a while, wow Robert what a great write up, just finished reading it over a few times, thank you kindly for taking the time to give your opinion. Brian the blade is now sold (you can expect a donation shorlty), I don't mind leaving the post here for reference or educational reasons especially after the time Robert took to explain, as long as you could modify / omit the prices. What do you think?

Robert is a great gent and a fellow Canadian that set up a beautiful life in Japan, he has access to some good stuff, looking forward to seeing what you have in store for us in the future!!!

This is very sad news, I've never had the pleasure of meeting him but I'm sure he was a true gentleman. My thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones. RIP Veli Thank you Jussi for delivery of the bad news, my condolences!

Hi Guys, I have this nice Ubu Wakizashi signed "Omi no daijo Fujiwara Tadahiro", accompanied with Tokubetsu Kicho Hozon and quality shirasaya. The blade is in quality polish, nice tightly packed hada, looks beautiful. This is 2nd generation Hizen Tadahiro with his Sugu-ha hamon, he's rated as O-Wazamono. Siganture looks accurate and I'm confident it would pass hozon if you were to resubmit. I strongly suggest this piece. Nagasa measures 46.1 cm / 18.15 inches. Sold

Me like, will take some getting used to for sure. Thanks Brian for all the hard work!!!!!!

Hi Guys, has anyone had experiences shipping to Brazil? Are there any problems importing antique Nihonto there? Normally I use fedex for shipping, but is there an alterante service that works better there? Thanks in advance

Sorry for the delayed reply guys. Thanks Brian B. for your continued Canadian support Brian R. is correct, this item was posted for discussion purposes which is why its not found on my sales page. I think anything outside of the norm is worth posting for discussion as many of you don't have the chance to see as many blades. Thank you Jason for your interest, I received several inquires about this set (even though it wasn't technically for sale yet), there is a well respected member here and in the Nihonto community that jumped on it just after this topic was posted so unfortunately for whoever else was interested it won't be going up for sale. I will be adding many other items in the weeks to come so stay tuned. Once things are finalized with the sale I'll be offering a donation, for those of you who would like to keep the topic active for discussion reasons I support this 100%. Ken brings up a good point from a practical side, and I love your reply to that Darcy! :lol:

some more....

Wow a lot of comments, thank you for everyone who gave their input. Thank you Chris and Eric for the info regarding Enshin. Darcy raises a good point, and I think its an interesting situation, both blades are extremely similar but are dated 9 months apart in 1898AD, maybe commissioned by the same owner at a later date, maybe not? The Shirasaya's look darn close aside from the horn around the mekuhi-ana (forget the name), I had a look close up and I have to say there might be a chance that the Dai received the new rectangular finishing (I've had those white round ones crack and fall off), the reason I say this is under close observation there is an air gap when looking inside the hole where the deeper white horn could have previously existed, maybe its me being overly optimistic. Under popular demand here are some more pictures of the blade, some very interesting hataraki don't mistake it for Kizu, both very healthy pieces.

Just got my hands on a Dai-Sho from Hayama Enshin, both are dated 1898 AD, full mei is Jōunsai Hayama Enshin Kore o Tsukuru. Started taking some pictures and I'm very intrigued by this set. Meiji work and later is not my area of focus on so I can't say I've had many examples in the past. I know Enshin liked to make these style swords but how rare would a Dai-Sho set be? Was this common work for him? I understand that this would fall between the middle of his career, right? Any more info or comments about his smith are welcome. Dai: 66.7 cm Sho: 55.5 cm

Hi Gents, this write up is based on my personal experiences....appears Fedex (Japan division) has made it their policy now to no longer ship any swords. At first it was no antique swords/ blades, but now they seem to have adapted to every other possible wording, Replica sword, ornament sword, Large knife, etc. One or two items may have gone past in the beginning but as November nears the end of the month they seem to be aggressively enforcing this new policy. They are aware of the situation with people trying to play with words, and even if you manage to get it through them somehow with your creative wording you face the item arriving at your customs and having the possibility of being rejected for poor or inaccurate description. This is a big deal for the Japanese dealers because fedex was the trusted method for the higher end items, I doubt anyone feels comfortable sending a Juyo piece using EMS, EMS has technically banned shipping swords a while ago but items still manage to get through, and by using them you are faced with a service that has a poor tracking system and high percentage of lost / misplaced packages. This is a particular concern for myself because I have several blades in Japan not able to safely export. Brian and those of you using fedex outside of Japan worry not, fedex is having no issues sending these internationally as long as they are not exported from Japan, I've had no issues delivering items to my clients worldwide using Fedex. For those of you trying to get pieces out of Japan I wish you good luck and hope they get to you safely.