HELP FOR SHIPPING

[eftihis]

Hi BBJW,
Owning a firearm (other than shotgun, which is easy) is very difficult in Greece. You must have either a "carrying weapon for self degence" licence, which is almost impossible to obtain, unless you are a banker or a politician, and the "athletic licence" which allows you to have, but not carry a hundgun. (you need a lot of effort like going to contests etc to keep it)
Regarding antiques, only flintlock are permited (anything before 1870, that cannot tace a cartidge).

Just to understand the situation, i know have to pass a trial at the 11th of November, because 3 years ago, when i bought a new damascus dagger from WARD, he sent it by mistake to my Greek ebay address instead of the London one i provided. They cought it on customs, and intead of sending it back (which they usually do), they confiscate it, and started an investigation, called me for an apology, and now the paper came for a court trial!!!
If i ger convicted is a 6 months minimum...

Anyway, i am from Crete which has a special weapon loving tradition, and i am afraid of these idiot bureaucrats!
As most Cretans i love weapons and i am not going to give up, legal or illegal!

I attach one of my favorite family photos, is my uncle and his friends after a wedding in Crete in the 50s...

[Rumpel]

Sorry for reviving this thread, but I was wondering if any of the Greek members in particular might know what the current laws are there for importing antique/ethnographic edged weapons, and whether it would be best to:

a) send overland, with furniture
b) by air, in the hold
c) by Fedex or similar.

Many thanks in advance for advice.

[kronckew]

in the UK straight swords of any length are no problem. no age or mfg. requirements.

curved swords pre 1950ish are OK as long as you can document the age. new or old ones) ones that are 'traditionally hand forged' are OK, as are ones with blades under 50m cm. you can also import new ones not 'traditionally hand forged' if you belong to a recognised martial arts school or re-enactment society with insurance.

they were actually trying to ban cheap samurai swords and ran into trouble from martial artists & collectors.

i almost had a new filipino made chinese style dandao (25.8in./72.4cm. blade) confiscated by the UK border agency last summer because it was not described as 'traditionally hand forged' on the customs docs. it took me & the vendor many emails, paper document mailings, and photos of one being 'hand forged' in the phillipines, about three months to convince them to release the item.

p.s. - if you have more than one item in the shipment they confiscate the whole shipment (and destroy it) even if only one item doesn't meet the requirements. which are nonsense anyway.

[Rumpel]

Thanks Kronckew. To clarify, I intend to export them from the UK to Greece: I just spoke to UK Customs who said there was no problem at this end, but couldn't provide any paperwork to smooth the path at the Greek end (which is what one shipping company asked for).

[Blacksmith]

I attach one of my favorite family photos, is my uncle and his friends after a wedding in Crete in the 50s...[/QUOTE]

Hi, my parents live near Platanias during winters and when i was visiting them a couple of weeks ago i saw this photo on the wall of the village tavern in Stavros. Is the photo published at some point or maybe it was your relatives tavern? I think I could help you with the sword problem. Here in Finland we don`t have any problems with the swords and daggers, antique or not.
And Im coming to Chania on september again.
Regards, Tapani

[BANDOOK]

THIS THREAD IS VERY INFORMATIVE AND ALL COMMENTS,AM WANTING TO BUY WEAPONS FROM UNITED KINGDOM BUT FACE THE PROBLEM OF AIRLINES AND MOST COURIERS NOT ACCCEPTING THEM,SO COULD SOMEONE ADVISE A GOOD COURIER AND SHIPPING COMPANY WHO CAN HANDLE SHIPPING AND CLEARING FOR EXPORT,KIND REGARDS RAJESH