International Orders

E

edwint

Joined
Jan 10, 2000
Messages
41
I am interested in getting a couple of knives over the net, but I do not live in the US.

No biggie - I just have to find 'stores' (for lack of a better word offhand) tt do Intl deliveries.

I'd like to hear from others who are in the same situation (ie: not in the US), and your experience on buying knives over the net. Which stores you'd recommend (for good service, reliability, competitive prices and/or whatnot) as well as those tt one should be avoid...

Your good experiences, as well as bad.

Also, whats your prefered mode of delivery.

Tks
Ed.


 
Ed I think it depends on where you are outside of the US-where are you? I'm in Canada and have stuff shipped all the time. I've learned a few things, but they're probably exclusive to US-Canada shipping. So where are you?

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"Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n"
John Milton
There are only two types of people; those who understand this, and those who think they do.
 
Ohhh! You are a long way away. Okay, here's my experience. Regular post (insured and requiring a signature) is the best way to go. UPS has too many questions and costs far too much. Have your supplier send the knife in a box about the size of a shoebox, plain wrapped. Don't have him put "Bob's House of Knives and Weapons" on the return address. Something a little less interesting like "BHKW Internet Industries". For the customs and insurance forms use only "tool" as a description. If you say "knife" or "cutlery" I gaurantee you it will get opened by customs and possibly taken. The trick is to make the package look as boring as possible. Not too plain, just ordinary. Hope this helps.

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"Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n"
John Milton
There are only two types of people; those who understand this, and those who think they do.
 
Edwin,

First of all, Welcome to the forums. We're just neighbors. I'm from the Philippines.

I've had lots of problems with postal services here (maybe bec. I don't live in the big city, but in the outskirts). Be it Global Priority, Registered Mail (for cryin out loud), EMS, and what have yous...

You can use any method, depending on how much you're willing to spend on shipping (remember that it's also an added overhead to the cost of the item). Whatever you do, ALWAYS make sure that the items are insured. There are a lot of itchy fingers in the postal service, specially in Asia.

And Johan is right. Always ask the sender to mark it as "tools"... never knives. Custom examiners open boxes, and chances are, most of them are already carrying MY knives (well, at least here in this country).

If only UPS or FedEx isn't so expensive, they are the best form of shipping available to us right now. The only setback is that with UPS, they have this problem of always declaring the items to customs, for God knows whatever reason.. Fedex protects its customers a lot better, IMHO.

Last, but not least. Choose your dealer wisely. There are a LOT of dealers out there who will service international customers. Don't be afraid to take your business to them. One thing I learned here on the Net is that they CAN be trusted, even if we're located outside the US. That's one thing I admire about Americans. It's their word of honor, and their willingness to make things right.
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Hope this helps.
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Dan
 
Some time ago there was a thread about international orders. I can't remember its name
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sorry.

Dealers:
I have oredered from chaicutlery.com and from ultout.com(and once from BF Store but that isn't possible anymore). ultout may be a little cheaper but J.Mattisis prices include shipping - no need to wonder what the shipping charce to abroad will be (many dealers announce shipping charges to US but not e.g. to Europe).
I don't order from dealers that use UPS as it is considerable more expensive and knives always stop to customs that not only rise the price but also causes extra bother too.

BF members:
I have bought half of my last years new knives from BF members. My best deals were made with members that wanted to get rid of some knives. Causes generally more email traffic but you get to know some members better. In good bad and ugly forum there is a thread about trustworhy sellers. Generally all sellers are good.

I suggest that you try with one not too expensive knife and see how things work.

I think that there are other members from singapore that mey help you with more accurate information about your customs regulations.
 
Ed:

Johan is right, UPS is a little tough. I don't know how the USPS does it, but when I ship internationally, and I do ship to a client of mine in Singapore, I have great luck using USPS - Express Mail International. This is a more expensive level or service, but you have tracking capabilities etc. You can try Golbal Prio. Service, that is a more cost effective than the other.

You may find a few threads about some horror stories of lost packages, but I send quite a few international shipments, and use that level of service everytime it has been delivered. The only complaint that I have recieved is that the package looks like it went through WW III. The box gets real beat up, but as long as the contents are in good condition everything is ok.

I hope this helps.

Ric
 
Ed.....I'm THE closes to You! I'm in Malaysia. All my knives come from states cause there's no such thing as knife stores here.(Besides, the selection here sucks!) There's one knife shop in Singapore actually, Sheares trading. It's located in World Trade Centre near the port, try it. I go there often to visit local knife collectors, infact there's a BF member right in your own home. He's in NS so you won't see him here in BF often for two years.

Anyway, I would recomend Travis of RedCanyon custom knives or ROY of Hammerhead knives. They are fast and the price is right. I use Fedex as they are more reliable than UPS.(NO this is not an advertisment...) BUT i have a question for you, as far as i know from the dealers of Sheares, getting a knife through the Singaporean customs is HELL! How are you gonna' get by them? No tantos, no this and that......let me know if i can help.

BTW, AncientSul is here visiting Malaysia and Thailand. He'll be back here in K.L on the 8th next month, he has some goodies with him. I'm sure you'll be interested! Come and meet us if interested.
 
Keninshiro,

I've not given much thought to customs (yet?) but off my head, I seem to recall a restriction on knives here is no sharpened swords - I take to be knives exceeding a certain length.

("swords w blades and edges blunt are meant for decorations and display purposes only")

That might not be the only restriction, but I guess I'll learn about it when I have to.
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Hmm, one might need to do some form of declaration to the LEO/Customs - but tt declaration is also done when you purchase a knife frm a store.

 
I've shipped knives to both Malaysia and Singapore (1 customer each - not much of a sample), without incident. The customer in Singapore got them by mail, and the customer in Malaysia prefered to pay extra for Federal Express. "Tools" is what it says on the customs form. And they come from me as a human, rather than a "cutlery" company. Your mileage may vary.


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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001
 
I bought many knives over the net in US but I had them sent to my friends who were visiting US at that time.

I can highly recommend James Mattis, Discountknives and TopTexknives.

David

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DIVERTI NESCIO

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My photos
 
Ed....i suggest you do a research cause unlike Malaysia, the Singaporean government is very strict when it comes to knives. I believe no exception is given to any sort of knives. I'm sure you do not want to lose hundreds of dollars......right?
 
... thks one and all for highlighting the potental pitfalls w customs; I did a quick lookup on the web and found some info regarding importing of knives to Singapore tt might be of interet to anyone else who intends to do the same. Links are attached below:

Basically, the only items listed as phohibited (wrt knives) are 'Flick knives or spring knives'.

I do know Spring knives refer to switchblades/automatics.

Anyone knows what is a 'flick knife'? (Butterfly Knives/balisongs are illegal in Singapore, would they fall into tt catagory?)

Clearance of postal articles: http://www.gov.sg/customs/trade/trde4_4.html
Arms & Explosives Branch, Singapore Police Force: http://www.asianconnect.com/TDB/TRS/aeb.html

 
Ed, first I must recommend James Mattis from Chai Cutlery. He's a great guy to do business with! He doesn't have a secure www-server, but he has PGP, so you can send your credit card numbers to him even more securely than to somebody with SSL-server.
About shipping... I would suggest that you ask the shop to send cheaper knives in plain padded envelope as normal airmail. It will not be insured then, but then again it doesn't say "(expensive) knife" on the top either. Some (most?) knives (or their boxes) fit in a letter. For expensive knives you should think about insurance. What is expensive and what is cheap - that is for you to decide.

Hugo.

[This message has been edited by Hugo (edited 01-17-2000).]
 
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