kusunokimasahige

Devastating news. My heartfelt condolences. I remember Ford as a patient teacher, always willing to answer questions, inform others about the work and techniques of Tsubako. Wishing everybody, but especially his family and close friends all the strength in the world.

Dreadfully sorry to hear about Darcy's passing. A shock and way too young. I was in touch with him infrequently with all kinds of questions about Nihonto and found him a great teacher who answered every question, no matter how daft, with sincerity and elaboration. He will be sorely missed. My condoleances to everyone who was his friend and his family and loved ones. KM

Very sad to hear about Fred's passing. My condolences to all who knew him well.

Ken, you can find him on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/mel.pen.3

My sincere and heartfelt condolences. Very sad news indeed. HJ

Oh man these are so cool ! I am going to ask a friend of mine who is a gunsmith if he could make me one

Dear all, it is with a sad heart I have to inform all of you that Yoshihara Yoshikazu, son of Yoshihara Yoshindo passed away may 1st. I received the news via Mike Yamasaki who got permission of the family to make it known. He wrote about it on the Tetsugendo.com facebook page. My heart goes out to his father and family and to all who knew him. Yoshihara Yoshindo and Yoshihara Yoshikazu

Beautiful !

Bringing a sword to Les Gold would be hilarious.... Though Detroit is not that nice of a city I believe.

Thank you for the link to that site Malcolm !

Very sad news indeed. My sincere condoleances.

That would be a great option, yes

Well I might try my hand at some shikoro yes. But mainly starting out with small wood placques and bowls. These tubes are fairly small. (originally intended for fishing rods). Some do not even use gloves.... (I will).

Be sure that if you get to know who that guy is you post a photo on the wall of shame of the 419eater site.

Yep John, wrote them a few weeks ago and they refused to send takarabune to the Netherlands.

One small addition. The Dutch Tax system will be changed a few percent higher. Basically VAT is 21% for normal items, for Antiques it is 6% which will go up to 9%. Asking the person shipping the item to write down the Tariff code in large letters on the invoice or parcel might at times help. Dutch customs however are quite sharp on any Ivory items which do not have a CITES declaration with it as well as for instance turtle shell items (My turtleback shaped Jingasa was opened just for that reason). From 22 Euro onward you pay VAT on any imported item, from 150 Euro onward you pay Duties (Customs fees). Plus any other handling costs the Postal agencies deem fit. Sending goods with DHL and FedEx is a little easier than the regular Postal service in the Netherlands since the Postal services (TNT and PostNL) work with C.O.D. for the taxes. FedEx at least just delivers the goods and later sends an invoice for tax due.

The only problem I have is that I cannot seem to find the Koiki and Takarabune tobacco for it. The last one is made in Belgium but that company refuses to sell within Europe. The only other way to get this tobacco, or so it seems is having friends take it with them for me or use a personal shopper, with the risk of customs checking the package and me paying a fine. Grrrrmbl.

That looks great ! I will start with smaller objects. This just arrived from Japan :

All way above my budget

Kiritsuke look to be in good shape, I like the armor and think the price is not that bad at all.

Of course a hibachi of 20+ Kg would certainly topple this ship and make it capsize.

This all does not deter customs from opening parcels and inspecting the contents in the destination country, of course. Nor does marking as gift prevents any VAT and Duties from being levied when they do open the package.

-Start of rant: So I bid on a Hibachi via Yahoo Japan for a ridiculously low price. Win it. Then the Proxy company says they cannot ship Surface to the Netherlands because it is too large. I write them and say according to the Japan Post site an item of 85cm long, 45 cm width and 45cm high is not too large. They write back that I am correct and and they made a mistake but that it is too heavy. So they ask me if I want to use EMS and or FEDEX and or DHL. So I write back to them I have never seen or handled any Hibachi that weighed more than 15 kg. They re-weigh it for me and say that including the box it is 21.4Kg and without the box it would still be over 20Kg. So basically this hibachi weighs more than the two cooking pots (14.9kg combined) sent via Surface mail to me (see below). Which I find really strange since it surely is not made from Oak. What I find even more ridiculous is that an ocean going ship cannot carry things over 20Kg according to them (and the Japan Post site). http://www.post.japanpost.jp/cgi-kokusai/country.php?cid=159 Anyway, I will probably have to choose DHL now since they are cheapest. (and I did not even order ash or charcoal to fill it up hahahaha). -End of Rant