Adrian

This is why I said "for your collection room" . Now, of course a room (even if you usually keep the door closed and have good gaskets at door and windows) is far from being a sealed environment. However a compressor dehumidifier can EASILY maintain the preset humidity in a relativelly small volume and deal with the ocasional spikes (aeration - windows opened, access - door opened) in a very swift manner. I'm speaking from a rather long experience in dealing with a strong humidity source (aquariums) in a room full with antique furniture.

What I did in a somehow similar stiuation with my first nihonto purchase was to ask the seller to pack the sword in a thick PVC tube (4' drain pipe ) with GLUED caps and then in a cardboard box. This way you can at least be sure that none from the customs will open it without the buyer being present and therefore the risk of damage becomes minimal. Worst case scenario (if the customs office is really far from the buyer location and he cannot go there in time) the item gets mailed by the customs back to the seller and the buyer loses just the shipping cost. On the tube caps you should put big stickers with red letters: OPEN CAREFULLY OR YOU WILL DAMAGE THE CONTENT.

Or you can buy a good (read compressor) dehumidifier for your collection room and never have to think again about humidity.

Next time when a nihonto gives you bad dreams just mail it to me Alex :D

Thank you Brian. I'll get in touch with both sellers and see how the price+shipping cost adds up in both cases. If anyone knows of another vendor that has Ho wood in stock, please share

Guys, I'm looking to make myself (as in first attempt ever) a shirasaya for a blade that is probably worth some 300-500$ As long as it's magnolia wood properly dried it will do P.S. I'm not anti-American (well, not more then most Europeans anyway :lol: ) so I don't mind at all if it comes from farms in South Carolina

Thank you Brian. It's the same source Roy (Lindus) told me about last night, apparently one of the UK shirasaya makers still imports from them, so the info about the ban isn't correct. Apparently there's a ban on the export of the Magnolia Charcoal tho viewtopic.php?f=9&t=15355&p=134869&hilit=magnolia#p134869

Thank you Ron. It's definitely helpful to offer info about an alternate source/material .

I'm contemplating the idea of making a shirasaya for the wakizashi that I purchased recently. However I remember seeing a discussion about the Japanese govt. banning the export of magnolia wood. Is this info correct and if yes where can I find a suitable piece of wood outside Japan? (if not, please recommend some sources from Japan) Thanks a lot.

1. 2x Ko-tsuka on the tsuka (as menuki I suppose :lol: ) 2. Kojiri as Kashira (not sure that Kojiri is the right name for this type of mount) I think whoever mounted this used for pommel cap the piece intended to be at the bottom of the saya, not a relatively similar looking kabuto-gane .

Nagayama's "The Connoisseurs Book of Japanese Swords" will really help you start understanding nihonto. Ask me how I know

Guess it's time to start pushing at the office for the end of October :lol:

Actually putting it down as 50$ also helps prevent theft (some major hubs use prison inmates to handle packages during holidays for example) or even unjustified curiosity from postal workers or custom officials. I've heard more then one story about very valuable swords damaged by custom officials who were curious to see how old, genuine Japanese swords behave during cutting tests

Jeez, this sucks beyond imagination. Where I live, all the mail for individuals (not companies) that may be subject to custom taxes and/or VAT comes to a special post office that has a small customs office. There the package is opened IN FRONT OF YOU, the papers are checked by the officer and he tells you what you have to pay. If there is an error you can present the payment proof and so on. Having the package opened without your presence seems wrong.

You lucky bastards :D

Well, I must confess I had no idea that you can view them hands-on Thanks a lot to both you and Mike for all the useful information, maybe we can catch up at the show if I make it there

Yup, submitting it for tokubetsu hozon isn't a bad idea given the relativelly low tax for fail. You're lucky in the UK that you don't get to pay VAT for the antiques, makes buying from Japanese dealers much easier.

Do call them, that's awfully low. Some years ago you were able to get such low limits sorted out via online chat, guess it's not the case anymore. Account age and purchase/sale history play a major part in setting these limits, so it looks like you're in for a session of chinglish or something similar The limits are made to prevent fraud (someone making new account, listing a few 2$ items to bump his feedback, waits some moths until you can see only his feedback but not the actual items or their value, then lists expensive items at bargain prices and asks for payment via Western Union or something similar - you get the picture)

Jeez, that sucks, last time I had to use the ebay support was more the a year ago (closer to 2 actually) and I was able to get trough with it without having to call anyone. What's your current selling limit?

Usually it's a better bet to use the live chat, speaking on the phone with people with funny accents (particularly when you're not a native English speaker yourself) can be really painful Not to mention that you can save the content of the chat

Thank you Mike, but I think that one is well over my current level of knowledge So, for the Dai Token Ichi 2013 there are no restrictions for foreigners, right? Visiting and purchasing I mean

Actually tbh I think it would have been hard to wrestle down Tsuruta san to my budget . (1500$) But anyway, when I finally mailed him about it I learned that you just spared me the effort :lol: . Out of curiosity, what are the custom taxes you are looking at? Well, I lacked the final push - the funds

If Brian wants to split this subject and move the relevant messages to the Izakaya, I think this would be a useful discussion to have. There are a lot of people who are unaware of these details, in fact, until you list something for sale it is impossible to figure out that the seller can see the maximum bid of the current high bidder. P.S. I think this topic viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15329&start=0 is ample proof that discussing ebay tips and tricks isn't useless for the nihonto collector

True Alex , but if you remember my reply was: Actually I was discussing it with one of the old members of this forum a few days before we spoke about it. And it was at my initiative I think he can confirm this if he wants . Anyway, it just felt good when Mariusz said what he said. :D

I'm not sure that I understand this correctly, is it that in the UK you get the package at home with the papers from the customs and if you have proof that they are wrong you need to pay what they asked for and then try to recover some of the money? That sounds horrible.