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Originally Posted by kronckew
The UK prohibits the import of curved bladed knives/swords over 50 cm. long.
There is an exemption available to collectors/martial arts members that they are OK if made by traditional means. I ordered two swords from Ron Kosakowski at Traditional Filipino Weapons a few years back. after buying the Visayan Barong above from him. One in a later batch had a slightly curved blade a few inches over the 50 cm. mark. Ron followed all the rules and had made it known on the customs form the sword was 'traditionally made' and thus exempt from the silly rule (silly in that a straight blade would have been allowed, no problem).
The UK Border Force Confiscated them anyway. Apparently, if one of a batch doesn't meet their arbitrary requirements, the whole shipment is forfeit.
With Ron's help and with photos & videos of TFW's blades actually being forged, along with some documentation from Ron, the UKBF grudgingly allowed the shipment into the UK to me. Some of TFW's items are somewhat loose in the interpretation of the appearance of the forms he has made by the traditional smiths he uses. He's got a bit better since our dance with the UKBF. The whole brouhaha took around 6 months of emails and surface mails, back and forth, before I received my goodies.
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Thanks for supporting the work of Filipino pandays sir. Although I have to admit, me and my friends don't get along well with TFW- we view the outfit as more of a custom blade producer, because, as you mentioned - the designs are inaccurate. There's also the case of the blades defying ethnographic accuracy- all of his pieces are made in North Luzon, and only by one ethnolinguistic group. This totally ignores the unique blademaking practices and other cultural stuff that is preserved by different regional pandays faithfully sticking to their respective regions ' trad blades. But perhaps the worst slurs are the mislabeled or fantasy-stuff history / origin stated by his products.
Sorry for the rant. But I really hope you come across the legit trad blades-- I can vouch that the real thing does perform well and look good!