Alex A

Leave a gap, force it and you might crack the saya. This advice from a guy that makes shirasaya, just leave it as Brian mentions, see how it turns out. Ive had this and it sorted itself out in a matter of weeks, eventually just goes in easily. Adam, for an handle that wont come off. Hold blade with a towel, find heavy square table leg, gentle tap backwards. Never failed Or use the proper tool Grey mentioned!

Leave it, dont force it. Its with being out and about and soaking up moisture etc, will be ok Give it a week or so, ive had the same bother

Congratulations Paz. On the contrary, never had much assistance from Parcelforce, especially when it comes to contacting the customs to sort stuff out. Still actually owed money for an overcharge some years ago, i gave up. Anyways, il stop moaning about them now. On a good note, never had an issue with anything leaving the UK, through them Paul, perhaps UPS are more open to ship swords etc when the folk wanting to ship are registered businesses/dealers. Maybe not so easy for Joe-public just wanting to ship one sword. The Antique gun dealer in the US i spoke to said he had to approach them to discuss the issue, the Dutch antiques dealer uses them for everything, swords included. Ive never tried them as Parcelforce seem ok with stuff heading out of the country, insurance is now a no-go though. I would hope that any dealer reading this would try and ship through UPS if sending to the UK, even at more cost. Might just save them and the buyer a boat load of hassles. Reading too many lately, seems worse since Brexit.

The thing with UPS, they were PREPARED to deal with the imports properly. Same thing on all 3 occasions. Gets an email, same 2 forms to fill in and send back online, 2 hours later, cleared. All relevent info on the forms, straight forward. Customs at parcelforce, Jeez, once sent a tanto back to the US just because the sender only put an initial for first name on parcel Luck of the draw

One more thing, at the risk of boring myself and others one last time. The issue is the customs at PARCELFORCE HUB COVENTRY and lack of knowledge to deal with such imports. If sellers keep on sending such items via couriers that end with PARCELFORCE this end, then the same issues will arise on occasion. This includes EMS and USPS. Folk need to try UPS, they have their own planes and own CUSTOMS CLEARANCE DEPOT in the UK. Not swords, but ive had 3 antique firearms shipped with no hassles whatsoever. They land and you receive an EMAIL with one or two forms to fill in ONLINE and send back ONLINE (takes 5 minutes). None of this ancient LETTER through the POST nonsense you get with PARCELFORCE. Now, its been said that UPS will not accept swords, but i know for a fact a Dutch antique dealer that sells swords and every other kind of weapon uses them, and only uses them. The gun dealer in the US uses them because he got sick and tired with hassles that ended with PARCELFORCE. We are not doing anything ILLEGAL, just INEPT folk dealing with stuff this end How does that old saying go about doing the same thing over and over again go and expecting a different result. If maybe a better option, worth looking in to.

Jeez, mind boggles. All i can say is in this day and age it is absolutely CRITICAL the description on the package is crystal clear and accurate. After that, just hope you dont get a naïve narrow minded buffoon dealing with it. Crazy.

Best part of the hobby, looking for and learning about stuff, better than ownership for me. Always going to be something of interest about and your views will often change.

The blade looks typical Sue-Seki.

Found it, by Jussi I think modern classification is sometimes too strict when it comes to "borderline" things, as I don't believe it would have been a big deal back in the day if your sword is 59 cm or 61 cm. I picked 10 swords from Kantei-Zenshu that were listed being used in katate-uchi style by NBTHK. Here are the blade lengths, and 3 of them are wakizashi but the few cms wouldn't have mattered back then. 66,8, 66,3, 64,8, 64,3, 62,3, 61,8, 60,6, 58,3, 56,5, 53,3. Here are portions of the description of swords that are 56,5 cm and 53,3 cm.

Difficult judging from images There is a thread somewhere with measurements of longer blades made for single hand use, if thats what you think it is, in hand .

Katana, looks to be suriage

You assume correct for Seki, file marks correct too What length is the blade?

Wow, the detail in those flowers!

As mentioned before, use a thick cardboard tube whenever possible, cut down to fit. If using a cardboard box then go around the entire box with brown tape, it may irritate customs should they want to check it out but better than getting beat up with holes in it, also makes it a bit more awkward for thieves looking for a quick grab, I use that “fragile” red and white striped tape too The item in the box, bubble wrap etc then i use masking tape. If customs want to take a look you want them to be able to open it up easily without having to resort to scissors and stanley knives and potentially damaging your item Had 2 swords turn up where the blade is sliding out of the saya. With shirasaa i wrapa piece of bubble wrap around the joint where the tsuka meets the saya and then wrap it tight over the top with masking tape. Should stop it sliding out and if messed with you will know someones had the it out for a look. With a blade in koshirae just make sure its wrapped tight enough to stop the blade slipping out, it is annoying when it turms up loose. Some folk pack cardboard boxes with wood https://www.bolk-antiques.nl/shipping-packaging

Not been on Ebay for a good while but used to find it very educational. The faster you sift through the junk the better your getting, occasionally something looked interesting and i would stop and get the books out then work out it all dont add up for one reason or another. Read there are better items on lately though, by some sellers.

Edited my post,. Suppose difficult to know for sure, but at least some ideas

Yes, they are the words i was looking for Piers, cheers. Was told some years ago that those type of heavy clunkers are rare and were also used on battlefields When you think about it, if wearing armour and taking a blow, id rather it come from a sword than one of those , 1cm thick. The gent that told me, very experienced and had only ever seen one, that was in gunto mounts

Forget the name, but perhaps modified to fit........... Page 325, Stones glossary No9, "Made and mounted like a sword but it has a curved iron bar"

id save up a bit more

Be interesting to see your several straight blades John, with school and date.

In the images, looks quite straight with little sori, so maybe Kanbun era Whats your thoughts on sori?

Look at old over polished blades where all that is left are very shallow traces of the original horimono. When horimono is added a later date (atobori) there needs to be great care about the depth due to core steel. Openings in Bo-hi are common in old blades. Care has to be taken with even polishing Bo-hi etc, hence why you may even come across staining that has not been polished out, experienced polishers maybe thinking less is more.

Bit confused here, are you talking about the blade with 3 nakago-ana in this thread? o

Good to see someone new to collecting knowing what they want, for a change. And doing their homework Well done, good purchase The Nanako fittings are nice.

With a long thin shaft like that, the only thing i can think of is an exceptionally rare type of arrowhead, but what do i know Edit to add. Got me curious this piers so started a look at the Stone Glossary book. p673 , no 48, similar shape. Perhaps something along those lines maybe, if not for a bow, maybe a crossbow. Maybe be totally wrong, but interesting though.