USPS length restrictions for shipping in Canada

by Simon N. Couture
(Quebec, Canada)

QUESTION: I was looking forward to buy the Cheness Oniyuri katana from your store, but I saw that you didn't ship outside of the USA due to USPS length restrictions.

So I checked the USPS website to learn more about those restrictions and I found out that Canada is one of the exceptions that allows maximum length and girth combined to be up to 108 inches. I was wondering if it was the only restrcition for shipping to Canada or if the 42 inches lenght limit still applied.

If it did, wouldn't there be any other way to have the sword shipped here? Like packing it out of it's saya and wrapping the blade in some kind of protective tissue (I don't really care about the box it comes in).

Also, I'm aware of mail forwarding services like AccessUSA, but before going into complications like these, I would like to be sure that there are no other ways to have it shipped here.

ANSWER:Hi Simon,

Unfortunately, the restrictions on parcels over 42" applies - and there is no other way around this. UPS, DHL are extremely cost prohibitive, attract outragous duties on your end - so Cheness, who ships all the swords on behalf of the SBG Sword Store, simply do not use them.

Unfortunately, there is no economical safe way to repack the swords either. If the blade is not in the saya, it will pierce the shipping box...

I really am sorry for any inconvenience, but trust me - we have looked into it, and the only way to get around it is to use a third party shipper...

- Paul