Its going to need to either be appraised by a court appointed expert, or have a certificate of authenticity from the Japanese Government, marking it as having been manufactured by a legitimate licensed japanese swordsmith.
In small towns i fear the aforementioned expert could be Dave from the local constabulary, who will invariably brand the priceless japanese antique as tat and have it destroyed, which will then **** off the entire martial arts practicing community of Britain..
A lot of this will be common sense. If you're walking to your martial arts class, they're probably not going to have a problem. I've been stopped by the police before on the way to a class and been asked what i was carrying, but they knew the club was there etc, and there wasn't a problem.
I echo Mirius' comments. There's already a perfectly good law to control the *carrying* of such weapons in public, which works very well for controlling all kinds of sharps. If this rule was specifically banning sale, i would be a lot less ticked off by it all, but its specifically targetting the consumer.
Blar!
In small towns i fear the aforementioned expert could be Dave from the local constabulary, who will invariably brand the priceless japanese antique as tat and have it destroyed, which will then **** off the entire martial arts practicing community of Britain..
A lot of this will be common sense. If you're walking to your martial arts class, they're probably not going to have a problem. I've been stopped by the police before on the way to a class and been asked what i was carrying, but they knew the club was there etc, and there wasn't a problem.
I echo Mirius' comments. There's already a perfectly good law to control the *carrying* of such weapons in public, which works very well for controlling all kinds of sharps. If this rule was specifically banning sale, i would be a lot less ticked off by it all, but its specifically targetting the consumer.
Blar!