Warning About Shipping Knives Overseas

Red - I understod you just fine. We are paying the same amount in taxes and customs... guess why I didn't buy a BF Native (about $100 + about $30 for shipping + taxes and customs about 33% = $173
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Bagheera - funny it works in Holland, here in Finland it would not. I've been just trying to find out about this thing as I might send one of my knives for repairs to USA. It would not work as you need to fill in the same form when you are sending the knife for repairs. When you get the knife back, you will also have to include the form that you filled when sending the knife. It's not enough that the sender sends this form.

Hugo.
 
Hugo,

cannot you just send empty envelope to obtain those papers? Just a thought.

BTW I got the knife from Staffan today - 3 days from Finland - No Problem at all.

David
 
As a Yankee who is still trying to solve the Mystery of the Customs Form, I get the impression that a lot of other people's governments are more greedy than mine.

I've gotten a bunch of packages with knives in them, by mail, from companies in Canada and Europe, and nobody has asked me to write a check to the US government on account of one yet. Maybe if it was a big crate instead of a package they'd take notice. Of course, we don't have Value Added Tax as a prime source of revenue. We do have state and local governments complaining that they don't collect any sales taxes from interstate mail order or Internet sales.

For shipping outbound from the US to countries with their own reliable postal services, you can drop a padded envelope or package that weighs less than a pound (about .4 kg for the rest of the world) into a mailbox with correct airmail postage, and the mailbox won't ask you to fill out a customs form. The one pound limit was put in a few years ago for fear of the Unabomber.

If you want insurance on the package, you have to tell somebody what it's worth. And I don't like to actually lie on a customs form, because I figure that the reason that God let Bill Clinton get away with it is because He's laying for me instead.

As for the invoice in the package, since when is there always an invoice in a package? I get a lot of packages where there's just a packing list, and the invoice travel separately.


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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001
 
David, sorry, I guess I didn't see your reply/question because of Christmas... no, can't send empty letter/box to get those papers. They will check that I'm sending something away, and they will also do random checks to see if what I'm sending is really what I'm supposed to send.

Hugo.

ps. We have tried many things with James and always it seems that the costoms do take their share (large share!) Special thanks to James for putting up with all the different things associated with this. Maybe some day will find the best solution.
 
I have ordered knives from various internet dealers in the US, all of them delivered by USPS. The German customs are slow, so the total time of delivery depends more on their workload than on the method of shipment (I suspect them of deliberately putting Air mail packages at the bottom of the heap)but so far no packages have been lost (Typing more slowly now, one hand knocking on wood). The only time a shipment ever bypassed customs it was declared as "kitchen utensils" -it contained, among other things, a KABAR Warthog- and so I cut some onions with it just to clear my conscience. Sometimes I just love political correctness
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Take care,
Tobse !
 
I bought a couple of knives and stones from the Knifecenter as well as Randall Knives. So far so good. In all cases they shipped via USPS insured at full cost, and they described the knife as either hand tool or cutlery.
 
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