Are there any issues importing Wooden War Clubs from the U.K.

[drac2k]

Thanks, gentleman, it appears that importation is still a game of chance.

[thinreadline]

as a botanist with a PhD relating to trees and years of experience in the tropics , I can attest to the enormous difficulty in identifying small pieces of 'old' wood in order to establish what species it is . I would have thought that unless you tell the customs / border officials what it is made of , they would have no idea whatsoever and little means of finding out in reality. That of course wont stop these unpredictable creatures confiscating your property on some pretext !

[Ian]

Originally Posted by thinreadline

... I would have thought that unless you tell the customs / border officials what it is made of , they would have no idea whatsoever and little means of finding out in reality. That of course wont stop these unpredictable creatures confiscating your property on some pretext !

Well put TRL! Drac, just declare it and don't give them any further data. The more you say, the more they have to be concerned about. "I don't know" is a perfectly truthful answer to many customs inspectors' questions regarding materials used in weapons. I have used "I don't know" effectively when asked about the age of an item, for example, which puts it back on them to demonstrate if something is not okay to import or export. The one exception is common materials (e.g., ivory, other parts of protected species such as skins) covered by CITES. You should know if something contains these and answer truthfully if asked. There are serious penalties in many places for knowingly providing false or misleading information.

Ian.