In recent years, I have been contacted increasingly frequently by organisations and individuals in need of assistance in navigating the confusing and messy legislation on curved swords brought in by the Home Office in 2008 and 2019. There is confusion among the Police, courts and hobbyists and sports, and I want to help reduce this.
This page is a useful first point of reference:
https://nbcc.police.uk/business-support/knife-guidance/offensive-weapons-act
If you have found this page and work for a law firm or the police, and you need assistance, I might be able to help. I have so far provided advice to various police forces and several dozen law firms, to advise on the legality of specific curved swords (where they might be antique, traditionally made, or have another legal defence for ownership).
I now provide reports for law firms at a reasonable rate, and will work pro bono for the police in most situations. I am of course not a legal professional, but I am an antique and edged weapon professional, working with museums, TV/Film and other organisations. I can advise on any aspect of a sword's age, historical importance, or method of manufacture. I appreciate that even for lawyers, courts and the police, the current laws are very confusing, and I am now very acquainted with them (unfortunately!).
I cannot unfortunately provide individual advice to collectors, because I simply don't have the available time to respond to the volume of emails I get on this topic. Collectors should read everything on this page, see my videos, and acquaint themselves with the law as best they can.
Police and law firms can contact me at scholagladiatoriachannel@gmail.com
Why the law needs to change: My opinion
The curved sword ban has had no demonstrable effect on violent crime since 2008, but has disadvantaged hundreds of thousands of people engaged in lawful hobbies, cultural & heritage activities, sports and businesses in the UK. Numerous businesses have closed down or moved abroad as a result. It also places a burden on Border Force, the Police and Magistrates' courts. It must be reversed to the pre-2008 status.
We have a current law that is nonsensical and unsupported by evidence. Under the current law, a blunt fencing foil, as found in schools, universities and leisure centres all over the UK, is an illegal offensive weapon, unless it is owned by a currently active fencer. The dress sword of a retired British Army General, hanging on his wall next to his medals, could be classed as an illegal offensive weapon. This is ridiculous.
All officials I communicate with (police, lawyers, government) agree that this law is a mess and of negligible benefit to anyone, only creating confusion and higher workloads. It has done nothing to reduce knife crime (which has gone up!), and only inconvenienced law-abiding citizens and officials.
The Home Office came under enormous media pressure, particularly from popular tabloid newspapers, in the 1990s and early 2000s, to deal with the rising knife crime in deprived inner city areas. "Samurai swords" were targeted for a new ban, yet 15 years after 'Samurai swords" (in fact all curved swords) were banned, we are facing more stabbings than ever before.
The tragic statistics made for hard reading (and the stats only seem to get worse with time) and the Home Office had to respond with new strategies. This trend continues unabated. The politicians went for the easy-win low-hanging fruit that they often do, of 'ban something', rather than looking to the fundamental causes of rising violent crime, such as poverty, gang culture, job opportunities, and the drugs trade. With decades of bans, knife crime has continued to rise. Sword/knife bans don't seem to work.
Every house, after all, contains readily-available kitchen knives (which according to Kent Police make up over 74% of weapons used in stabbing, with screwdrivers and glass objects making up a significant proportion of the balance), therefore banning a specific type of obscure knife or sword was never really going to have any tangible effect on the problem, while kitchen knives and other tools are always available and used in the majority of stabbings.
No stats exist for the number of swords used in violent crime, because they are so rarely used.
The available statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) do not seem to demonstrate that any of these strategies have worked:
"In recent police recorded crime figures published by the ONS which showed a 9% decrease in the number of knife and offensive weapon offences recorded from 38,728 in year ending March 2020 to 35,217 in year ending March 2021 followed by a 16% increase to 40,920 in year ending March 2022."
Therefore we have seen a net gain in offences, despite the pandemic lockdown conditions pushing such crimes far down during some of this period. The 2008 and 2019 sword law changes have had absolutely no demonstrable effect on violent crime.
(source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/knife-and-offensive-weapon-sentencing-statistics-year-ending-march-2022 )
In the last 20 years, we have seen knife crime rampant and rising, while lawful fencers, martial artists, traders, antique dealers, manufacturers and reenactors have been punished by ever more useless legislation. Innocent people have been dragged through Magistrates' courts, had the tools of their lawful hobbies and businesses seized (only to be later restored), and the workloads on officials and the court system has increased.
The government needs to drastically rethink their strategy and reverse some of the poor decisions of the last few decades. The government needs to stop punishing the law abiding, and deal with the causes of violent crime.
Elephant in the room: What are "traditional hand sword making methods"?
One of the legal defences for owning, buying, selling and importing curved swords is that the sword be made by hand, by traditional sword making methods. That is absolutely explicit in the words of the Act and is published on various government websites.
Tens or hundreds of thousands of swords have been imported under this legal defence, and have passed through HMRC, Border Force and the Police since this law was brought in, adding recognition, legal precedent and validity to that defence. I lieu of more specificity in the written law, we must rely on case examples and case law.
So, what exactly are traditional sword making methods?
Before we answer that question, it is important to note that various people have sought greater clarity on this point from the Home Office, but they have so far not shared any details more widely on the matter. It is therefore left up to us, the police and the courts to establish a consensus.
This consensus has already started to solidify, thanks to the many thousands of swords which have been seized by Border Force and the Police, and subsequently released back to their owners when proof of traditional craftsmanship was demonstrated (at great time and cost to all involved unfortunately).
Traditional sword making in history:
Swords have been made by many diverse methods over the centuries, and these methods vary by both date and geography/culture.
However, there are some general features which absolutely everyone involved in the history of sword making would agree upon:
This is a very general and brief overview, but one of the important points to note is that for hundreds of years, various forms of machine have been involved in sword making around the world. Whether it was hand-operated bellows, water-driven trip hammers, or grinding wheels, or various forms of powered polishing devices. Steam power was also used extensively in the 19th century. Water, steam, gravity, animal and other forms of powered machine have been used in sword making since Roman times and perhaps earlier. The use of machines in sword making, or any traditional craft, is not new.
With the above in mind, it should be pointed out that the vast majority of swords being produced today in any country in the world are being made with 'traditional hand making' methods. Sword makers in Europe, China, Japan, India and Thailand, for some examples, are generally making sword blades by forging, grinding, polishing, hilt-mounting and sharpening by hand, in very similar ways that they have done for hundreds of years.
So perhaps the remaining question is, which are the curved swords NOT being made by hand according to traditional sword making methods? I am not sure. None of the sword manufacturers I work with use a modern form of sword production that is different to what people were doing 100, 200 or 500 years ago. Cost certainly does not dictate 'traditionally made', because workers' wages in China or India are on a very different level to those in Europe of course.
This question remains as an elephant in the room.
Here is a video of blade making in Sheffield, filmed in 1979, showing how knives were 'traditionally made by hand' then in the same way that they had been for hundreds of years. Below are historical examples from Europe and Japan, going back to the 14th century.
Lord Clive 'of India', positioned between the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and His Majesty's Treasury, in Westminster, sporting a curved sword with a blade over 50cm long. Is a metal sword on a statue illegal? If Clive were alive today he would be breaking the law by owning a curved ceremonial sword:
Generic cover letter (Word doc) which you can tailor to your own needs for importing curved swords into the UK. You need to provide your own legal defence exemptions and show evidence of those. Your letter and documents should be attached to the OUTSIDE of the box to facilitate easier import.