Arms fairs in England
 

Hello. is "Bisley arms fair" worth visiting? is it big? Has edged weapons?
And any other arms fair recommendable for october 2013 in UK? I will visit England in october for a week and try to decide the dates accordingly.

regards

Salaams erlikhan see http://www.bisleyarmsfair.co.uk/aboutbisley.htm

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

Interesting! I have only ever been to the Birmingham one, which to be honest has lost its charm as I found there to be a general bad attitude among the sellers and quite high prices being demanded.

I may check out this Bisley show instead, though it looks to be smaller?

The Bisley fair is very interesting but is mostly orientated towards competition rifle shooters. There are other weapons available but it is one of the least fruitful events for a good range of historic or ethnic edged weapons . I tend to diagree with you about Birmingham however which I maintain is the best fair outside of London, and despite soaring prices , is far better value and has a far better range than any London fair.
This month in the UK there is :
STRATFORD ON AVON on the 13th
NEWARK on the 13th
WOLVERLEY near KIDDERMINSTER on the 20th
EDINBURGH on the 20th .. but I dont think the Scots allow the sale of edged weapons at fairs
LEEDS on the 20th .. this is best in the north of England
DURHAM on the 27th

but if you really want a good one then forget the UK and go to CINEY in Belgium on the 27th ! This will take you all day just to walk round , but you need to be there at 6.30 am !

I have to say that my experience of UK arms fairs is very much the same as Williams. All the ones in my area tend to have very indifferent sellers almost unpleasant in manner. Most of the items are military based made by governments in millions and sold at high prices as if they are rare. Anything ethnic or at all interesting these days is so over priced as to be prohibitive unless you really do have money to splash around. Kempton early morning general junk/antique market can be good but only on the one off chance visits which can happen at over priced arms fairs too if you are lucky.

Tim
Who are these unpleasant dealers ... ? I honestly have to say that in 45 years of regularly visiting British arms fairs I can count the number of bad experiences on the fingers of one hand.. And I visit at least one a week ! We clearly visit different shows ! As for high priced stuff ... I generally find that the sellers of more modern military stuff tend to despise ethnic weaponry as 'junk' and price it low to get rid of it . In general I find militaria dealers to be pleasant , whereas my experience at Antique fairs is to encounter dealers who have a superior attitude and look down on customers.
Richmond

Difficult to point fingers at who the unpleasant dealers are at the Birmingham show as I don't really know most of them by name. But as Tim said they do treat you with an indifference that is quite unpleasant. Some of the older ones just grunt at you with a mild look of disgust you when you ask to have a closer look at the items on display! haha

With regards to the price, in general things are really quite expensive with the nihonto breaking the bank.

I have had some bargains on the ethnic stuff with the dealers selling low-end miscellaneous stuff.

OK .. I am with you now. Yes there is a guy at the Birmingham Fair who just grunts at you and looks at you you as though you have just been scraped off his shoe .... I disliked him for years and then by chance was stuck with him in a long queue to get off the waterlogged site at the War & Peace Show. I got into conversation with him and discovered him to be a most amusing intelligent man , and since then have found out he is great musician and multilingiust ! Well it shows you cant always judge a book by its cover.