knowledge of shipping to Canada

by Nigel
(Niverville, Manitoba, Canada)

QUESTION: Hi, I was refered to your site from a friend of mine. Although he has never bought anything from you. Upon looking at your site I'm very impressed with what you have to offer although I have a question.

On some of you swords you specifically say shipping in the US only. I was wondering why that is and if you know wheather or not it is possible to have the swords shipped a US mailbox and then brought over the boarder personally? As well as when they aren't marked if there are any problems when shipping the swords over the boarder?
Another question I have is in regards to the bo-hi option. If selected does that reduce the strength of the sword an would you recomend the bo-hi or solid form?

ANSWER: Hi Nigel,

Actually, its only the Hanwei swords at the SBG store that cannot be shipped to Canada, but the reason is only because the swords are shipped direct from the manufacturer - and the manufacturer only ships within the US - not from any specific prohibitions.

The only other thing is that some of the longer swords are too long (by a couple of inches or so) to ship via the preferred US/Canada shipping method (which is USPS - US Post).

But yes, I know of a few guys who have them shipped to a nearby US address and then come and pick them up... :-) There are really no problems getting them across the border except for the occasional requirement of having to pay PST/GST on them...

As to the bo-hi - it does weaken the blade slightly, but the loss of integrity is minimized by the 'I-beam' structure the bo-hi creates. So the benefit is increased speed and better balance, and the draw back is a slight loss of durability and also cutting power.

Hope this helps.

Kind Regards,

- Paul