Shipping a Knife to Me

This is what you need to know before shipping a knife for me to work on. In any case, email me before shipping anything, just to make sure I know it is coming, and then maybe to get a cost estimate for the sheath too.

Canadian Orders

If you are located in Canada, then shipping the knife to me is relatively easy and cheap. You can ship it by any method you like, making sure it has insurance, tracking or delivery confirmation of some sort. If I never receive the knife, obviously I can't be held responsible for it, it'll be between you and the mail carrier. But if you request delivery confirmation when you ship the package, the delivery person will need my ID and signature before they let me have the package, so you will know if I have it or not. Without delivery confirmation they can just leave the package on the doorstep and leave, marking the package as delivered, and anyone walking by can just pick it up and walk away. So make sure you request signature on delivery.

International Orders

If you are located outside of Canada, then there are a few more issues. Aside from delivery confirmation (see above), you'll also have to email me and check if your particular knife is legal to mail to Canada, or it will be confiscated by Canadian customs at the border. As a general rule, balisongs, push-daggers, automatic knives and gravity knives are prohibited. But even if you are shipping a manual opening folding knife, I strongly suggest that you tighten the pivot pin to the point where the knife cannot be easily opened. If the customs official can manage to flick the knife open with a sharp snap of his hand and wrist, the knife will be declared and gravity knife and therefore prohibited.

Second thing for mailing from outside of Canada is customs fees and duties. Make sure that when you ship the knife the customs slip is marked as either "Gift" or "Repair" or "Sample", whichever applies, because if you do not I will have to pay the taxes on it. If the value or insurance on the package is listed as more than $20, I mayl have to pay 15% of that value, plus C$5 handling fee when I receive your knife. So, if you mail me a knife and insure it for $100, I will have to pay $20 in taxes when I get the package. So if you ship me the knife and it is not marked as duty-free (gift, repair, sample, etc.) and I have to pay the tax on it, then that tax amount will have to be added to your final order cost as well.

Other that that, there should be no problems. Within Canada shipping is very safe and easy, just make sure to ask for delivery confirmation, it only costs a dollar for Regular Parcels, and is even included in the shipping price of Xpresspost.