Adrian

Alex, as I pointed out, your speculation had no base, since the TSA regulations are very clear and allow swords to be checked in. It was entertaining tho. :D

Before writing such (entertaining, I agree :D ) stories it's always a good idea to look into the legal/regulation part. This isn't exactly hard to find : http://www.tsa.gov/traveler-information ... ed-items#4 As you can see, all swords (defined as "cutting or thrusting weapons, including fencing foils") are OK when checked. End of story.

Sorry Denis, you need to understand that this is a web forum, people will only understand what you write down, not what you had in mind. If your title was "Importing a sword trough mail/courier services" I wouldn't have started discussing bringing it home in your luggage. Tbh it's hard to understand why you try to stir the pot every time when I'm around (with personal attacks and so on). Get over it (whatever this "it" may be) already...

There's no doubt about it. The only problems are 1. that the cost is very high and 2. you'll get your money back if something goes wrong, but if the item is one of a kind (as it's the case with most swords)... For a low to mid-level sword and speaking strictly from an economic point of view, it makes no sense to go to a show, buy a sword then ship it to your home using FEDEX when you are traveling to your home anyway.

John, It's undeniable there are such cases (large items stolen from luggage in airports), but they are very rare, at least according to the airport policemen who was seated next to me on a very long flight in 2010 :D . According to this fellow, due to the way the cameras are set in the baggage processing area (in pretty much any airport these days), the thieves who seem to always exist between the baggage handlers have only a few seconds to operate, if they want to avoid being captured. Apparently they manage to figure out the blind spots (hence some sort of cat and mouse game with the airport police, that periodically rearranges the cameras) and use these blind spots to go trough "promising" luggage pieces. But they need to do this VERY fast (as to avoid that the fellow(s) who monitor the cameras takes notice of the fact that a luggage doesn't follow the circuit in due time) and the stolen items need to be small enough to be concealed on the body of the thieves after the theft takes place. That's why I think it would be very difficult to get out of the luggage processing area with a long and rather thick PVC pipe without anything appearing on the cameras. Denis, I thought we were discussing about bringing home a sword purchased abroad. The obvious choice (if bought in person, at a show) is to bring it home yourself, which in many cases will imply going with it trough an airport. While some seem to believe that this would be the ordeal of their lives, others disagree. John even offered to do this himself for other members, if expenses are paid :D I believe that was the first post when this subject was discussed.

If you fear that it may be "lost" as in stolen, the thieves operating in the luggage area usually go for small and obviously valuable items. If you put the sword in a sealed PVC pipe there's very little chance of it being stolen (or damaged for that matter). Of course, if they actually lose your luggage (as in boarding it to the wrong plane or something like that) then things can go south, depending on the destination and what happens there. (no so unusual to see an unclaimed luggage stolen from the claim area by other passengers, particularly in 3rd world countries ) If you want to be 100% sure, then probably something like Fedex with insurance at full value is the way to go.

Out of curiosity, did he had some sort of invoice in English stating that was an antique sword? (packed with the sword, I mean)

Ryan air no, but I had to fly several times with low cost companies and I don't see how this would have any negative impact in clearing the customs. If anything, it would make things easier since these airlines usually fly on smaller, less busy airports. But, as I said, it all depends on how used is a person with traveling, dealing with foreign authorities and so on. I'm what the French call debrouillard, managed to talk my way trough the Libyan crossing point and customs at the height of Gaddafi's reign (coming from Tunisia, talked them into giving me and my small group the visa on the spot - didn't had any Americans with us though :lol: ), so I don't think I'd find Ryan air to be such an ordeal, so to speak :D

Guess it depends on whether you're (or you're not) used with traveling abroad. We're talking about democratic and developed countries here, it's not like someone is going to attend sword shows in Somalia :lol:

Probably the best possible solution (in pretty much any country, see Ken's example with the tachi) is to attend sword shows, buy the swords you like, bring them home yourself. Of course you can still have bad luck and have your luggage damaged at the airport, but if you put the swords in strong PVC pipes I'd say the chances to have them damaged by the airport personnel are slim to none.

Thanks for sharing, a very nice tsuba indeed. I like it a lot. In fact the whole koshirae has a very classy look, to say the least.

What's interesting is that they have Paypal as payment method. So probably they would claim the delivery takes longer and hope that some unsuspecting victim doesn't open a case before Paypal releases the funds to their bank account. But this doesn't seem to justify the effort ( it would work only now and then). Or (most likely) they will mail some bs item worth maximum 10$ and refund the item cost (minus shipping) when the victim complains, but gain some 70$ or so per item due to that huge shipping cost listed on the auction page.

Seriously Ron, why exactly are you so bothered by this discussion? I presented a different opinion then yours and lined up some arguments, it's just that, not the end of the world. P.S. What I mentioned was this example: Which is obviously a very different use then what you proposed in a subsequent post: I thought we could just calmly debate the matter... Somehow the idea of a mass assault using grappling hooks and ropes against a well manned stone castle doesn't fit in the history that I know .

Hi Kam, That's pretty much what I proposed too. Others seem to disagre. But honestly I don't think there's any argument in favor of using grappling hooks and rope for climbing walls during the assault of a well manned fortification. Davis also explained very nicely why this wouldn't be feasible from a climber's point of view. And the lack of historical evidence seems to confirm this idea. There's no debate about the use of grappling hook+rope in naval warfare, everyone agrees with it Basically the only disagreement was about using hook+rope for climbing walls during assaults, under enemy fire.

Kam, I also mentioned a known historical example (as in known from several contemporary sources) which confirms the use of grappling hooks in siege warfare. What I find to be highly improbable is the alleged use of grappling hooks and rope for scaling the walls during an assault. Very interesting pics, thanks for sharing. I'd say that they obviously present either rope/wood ladders or grappling hooks used for hand to hand combat. The grappling hooks attached to poles were probably used for dragging down defenders from walls once the attackers climbed high enough using ladders of some sort. That's one of the oldest tricks in siege warfare (well, not using 100 but many more ) but it's just a variation of something that I already mentioned as making perfect sense: using such hooks for scaling the walls during a surprise attack, probably at night and so on. What I find improbable and illogical is the use of grappling hooks and ropes for climbing walls during a frontal assault (so to speak). Hence the discussion about following suicidal orders and so on. Actually scaling such cliffs in order to take by surprise the defenders of a very strong position is a well known tactic since Alexander the Great took the mighty fortification known as the Sogdian Rock. Since Alexander, this feat is usually done by highly rewarded volunteers, usually people from the attacking army who originate from mountain areas. Siege warfare is one of the chapters of military history that always interested me and I've done, in time, quite some reading on the subject. This is why I find this theory about climbing walls with hook and rope under enemy fire a bit too far-fetched. There are also some very interesting psychological aspects of a long siege and one of them is that morale collapses very fast if you send even a small group of your own soldiers to die an obviously useless death. Of course, I stand corrected by contemporary sources, if any are known.

Ron, There's nothing romantic in not sending your soldiers to certain death, particularly when the chances of achieving any result worth mentioning are non existent. I know that WWI saw some of the most idiotic orders being carried out by vast number of soldiers but that has nothing to do with our little discussion. I don't doubt that many samurai would have followed order even when facing certain death, what I doubt is that the warlords would have issued such an order when they perfectly knew that there were virtually no chances of success. Even using ladders only worked against depleted or insufficient garrisons. Using hooks and ropes would have been just suicide as long as the defenders had anything to throw at the attackers. Anyway, I guess we could just try to find out if there are known contemporary sources that speak of (or depict) grapple hooks being used during assaults against stone castles in medieval Japan.

The chain was a part of the discussion about the intended purpose of this item. I completely agree that, without a chain, the rope would be subject to abrasion if the grappling hook was used for scaling walls. What I don't understand is how someone was supposed to survive such an attempt if done during an assault, when the defenders would have ample opportunities to throw/shoot at him various things ranging from spears and arrows to plain boulders while he would have absolutely no chance do defend against these attacks or evade them in any way. When it came to scale enemy walls during assaults, the ladders were the first and obvious choice. Sometimes the use of siege towers was required, against particularly stiff resistance, when not even the ladders allowed the attackers to climb the walls fast enough to stay alive. I can understand using grappling hooks to scale walls during surprise attacks at night, probably wrapped in some sort of cloth to avoid making too much noise. But in such a scenario I guess that the chain wouldn't be used, they would go for the setup that John posted in a photo a few messages ago. The grappling hook and chain combo makes perfect sense in naval warfare, where you don't want the rope to be instantly cut by the enemy while you try to drag the enemy boat's rigging.

"Awesome" sounds like an understatement for this result. Thanks a lot for sharing. Did you paid for master polish or standard polish?

And that's only the "mechanical" part of the problem, so to speak. If using a grapple hook to climb the wall during a siege, the soldier doing it would be totally defenseless during the climb. On any wall higher then 30 feet or so, I'd say the chances to reach the top alive were next to zero if the walls were properly manned.

Ron, is there any contemporary source that would confirm the use of these Kaginawa for climbing the walls during the all out assault of a stone castle? (not to try a surprise attack during the night or something like that).

Such hooks were used during the last stages of the siege of Constantinople (in 1453) .When the outer wall (the fortifications had two walls but only the outer one could be manned by the defenders) was destroyed by the Turkish guns, the defenders managed to raise a wooden palisade, topped with barrels filled with earth. Therefore, during the several assaults which ended with the fall of the city, the Turks used grappling hooks to tear apart the palisade and drag down the barrels. This use of the grappling hooks is well documented by quite a few contemporary sources. I guess that these Kaginawa would have been used under similar circumstances, against wooden defensive works. Or in naval warfare, of course. Trying to climb the walls using a rope under enemy fire during a siege seems a bit extreme even for warriors who don't put too much value on their own lives. Maybe during surprise attacks, when using ladders would be impossible?

TBH I think we should send some samples to Grey (who is well known by a lot of people on this board and also has experience with how books resist in time) and to Markus who is the author. Nothing against Alex if the printer is willing to ship 3 sample sets, but my feeling is that 1 sample set shipped domestic and 1 sample set shipped international is what we can ask from him without pushing it.

I'm not familiar with US paper brands so I cannot really comment on Finch Opaque, but going from 70# to 80# will make a big difference in making this book feel like a quality product. Keep in mind this is a large format book, so the paper HAS to be thicker then what you would normally use on a regular sized book (to avoid the pages being easy to tear trough normal use). Go to a local printer and ask him to show you 70#, 80# and 85# paper samples in A4 size, you'll see what I mean. Smaller samples just don't let you figure out the difference if you dont have experience.

Glad we sorted that out. As for the rest, I hope you don't count the idea of this project as "quibbling over various points and technicalities". TBH I'd say that, if anything, it should count as a valuable contribution. Please understand that I would have never bugged you every 3 months (mosquito style, as you put it with a bit of hostility) if I wasn't 100% sure that the possibility to have such a small edition printed in offset will vanish into thin air once the economy fully recovers from the recession. I think that enough members have contacts in the printing business and they will confirm that, before 2007, practically no printer would have touched an order under 500 copies. And even those who would touch a 500 copies order were not that many. This is why I kept inquiring and pressing about this idea, not some weird desire to wind you up. This being said, I hope you'll take this argument into consideration and manage to go trough with the project before the opportunity is gone. Best of luck!

Despite our differences I respect your work with this forum, have no doubt about it. And I have no problem accepting the fact that you don't like me or whatever other personal reasons you may have to post this message. Will therefore comply with your request. However there's one thing I don't understand, why you felt the need to defame me. This is the topic I've made on this very message board almost a year ago, after I received a wakizashi in Soten style mounts purchased from Grey viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15304&st=0&sk=t&sd=a (I'm sure he can confirm this and also my interest in purchasing a larger lot of nihonto and tosogu themed books) Now, of course a sword purchase isn't going to make someone a nihonto collector, but I'm pretty sure the purchase and the subsequent research in the story depicted on the mounts qualifies me as an enthusiast. So please do not use your position as an administrator to defame someone that you can put in the position to be unable to reply. Again, I apologize if I have somehow offended you, it certainly wasn't my intention.