A Nice Chat with the Canadian Border Services Agency

[FullerH]

Anyone ordered a fixed blade knife from e-bay and never get it. I successfully bid on a Vietnam era Pilots Survival knife at the end of November. The seller told me it was mailed on 8th December. It is coming from the US to Canada and still not arrived. What happens in such cases?

Having said all that it is a nice minty item and is marked (he said he didn't think it was) 'Ontario', which is Ontario Knife and Tool (of the USA) and is also dated on one of the flats of the pommel as 10 - 1976. Funny it ends up in Ontario, Canada eh?

From the "10-1976" stamp on the blade, I would say that the knife is post-VietNam War. The Paris Accords supposedly ended US involvement in 1973 and Congress finally cut off funding for the continuing air war in 1974. The actual fightiing ended in April, 1975, with the fall of South VietNam to the North VietNamese Army. Therefore, a knife with a 1976 date could not be a VietNam War era knife.

 

[Andrew Taylor]

Thanks for the information. I thought this was probably the case. I was in bed last night and was thinking "I must look up when the war ended"? The reason I bid on this one was because of the metal re-inforcing on the scabbard which looked like an 'in-the-field' repair. When the item came, the whole thing looked new and the metal re-inforcement was polished and shiny.

With ebay you live and learn and this isn't quite as bad as the 'ancient dagger' I purchased a number of years ago that turned out to be a tourist letter opener made of brass and only 6" long. I asked questions, but all the wrong ones

The survival knife is here if you are interested. Thanks again.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...PageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:CA:11#ebayphotohosting

 

[cybrok]

Stupid question: when it's write "opened", is it the knife or the package?

This may look stupid, but forgive me, I haven't slept a lot during the last few days.

 

[Vess]

From my experience, on the customs form (taxes, handling) if it says "Opened", it usually means everything. The box opened, the knives examined (opened, closed, flicked). Basically if you see yellow tape on your box, it means someone at customs played with your toys.

Oh, and about a year ago I wrote a really mean post towards Canadian customs on Canadian Connection subforum here. I ordered a Buck 110 (folding blade) and Spyderco Ronin (fixed blade), and it was opened and examined by customs. Unfortunately, after examining it they did not put the Buck folder in its box, and the DID NOT PUT the Ronin into its Kydex sheath. Considering that the knives were shipped in a padded USPS Global Express envelope, this was SOOO STUPID. When the mailman gave me the envelope, I didn't notice the cuts, but the envelope was sliced many times from the inside by the Ronin. Those who have handles the knife know it has an extremely thin, freakishly sharp tip. The mailman could have EASILY sliced his hand in up into ribbons, it's a miracle he didn't, honestly.

I wrote a pretty self-controlled letter the next day and attached a picture of the envelope and unsheathed knife, and explanation that the Kydex sheath is tight and the knife could not have fallen out of it on its own, and Buck 110 didn't just open its own box, jumped out and closed it afterwards. It was an idiot at the customs who after opening the packaging didn't bother to reapply it, or even sheathe the blades. Of course the letter was ignored, nobody phoned me with a followup, nothing. Usual bureaucratic bull.

Nobody got hurt, although the next time I saw my mailman I was half expecting him to ask if I had something sharp sent to me because his bag was shredded from the inside. But he didn't, so I guess it's all settled. Still, made me mad as all hell.

 

[cybrok]

I agree, that was SO DUMB

there are jerks everywere

Is it me or people at the customs are there only because they were not good enough to be cops

That was mean, I know, but I heard about so many dumb things...