Importation of Samurai swords to UK

[lakesidetrader]

Can anyone tell me if there are any restrictions on importing these to UK?
As always your feedback is valued.
Paul

[brannow]

Hi Paul,

It is possible but there can be problems because of the interpretation of the laws that were passed a few years ago. You should ask the question on the Nihonto msg board.

[Brian Robinson]

Here you go...will have to wade through it as I don't have time to summarize:
http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6214
http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewt...hp?f=9&t=13389
http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2299
http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8967

Brian

[lew07]

Hi Paul. It is OK to do this providing the sword was made before 1954 OR was made by traditional methods.It will of course be liable for an import tax as it has not come in from an EU Country

[sturmann]

Salut,

The UK law bans the import of any sword with a curved blade longer than 50 cm . However, as explained by Lew07 , there are quite a few status defences in place but the ones that a collector can claim are mainly :

- the sword was made before 1954
- the sword was made at any time according to traditional methods od forging swords by hand

The sword will be more than likely stoped at the border and the buyer will have to demonstrate that his sword falls into one of the above mentioned categories and therefore is legal .

Now that is where the real problem can arise ... as the importer is at the utter mercy of a civil servant who is usually clueless about swords .

Either he will be satisfied with a bit of paper work provided by the buyer and after couple of weeks the piece is release upon payment of import duties or the case is unfortunatly dealt with a very stuborn official who is hell bent in raising objections after objections and trying to confiscate the piece.

Good luck ...