Whiting Bronze Grade Midge Saddles

[rabmax]

Hello all i have been looking at buying some quality saddles for tying small Parachute's & other small stuff .I thought about using packets but have decided it might be better in the long run to buy some quality saddles. I like the look of the Bronze Grade Midge Saddles tying from 18-26+ would be ideal for what i wan't.But Lakeland never seem to have any in stock .I emailed them to ask if they would have more anytime soon but still waiting for a reply.Does anyone know anywhere selling them or something similar.It seems a bit of a minefield looking for saddles with all the different grading systems. Cheers

[arkle]

It looks like, from google at least; that you may need to widen your search criteria beyond the U.K. Try "whiting midge saddles" & see what comes forth...... There is far more demand for them in the U.S. so you could end up finding them without to much difficulty.

[rabmax]

Cheers Arkle Does anyone have any problem ordering Saddles from the U.S.I was told that because of the bird flu in Asia there has been cases were the British customs has wrongly confiscated Capes & Saddles getting imported from the U.S..How true this is it's probably complete rubbish but worries me forking out money just in case .I will wait a few more days & see if Lakeland gets back to me .

[stevekale]

Just give Nigel a call in the morning

[Chris Reeves]

With regards to the customs issue, There is a general ban on the importation of any feather attached to the skin unless it is accompanied by a vets certificate stating that the bird was flu free. This certification is paid for by the importer.

Therefore despite being on the Whiting Pro Staff I can't get product shipped to the UK as the Vets certification costs around US$400 and for my volumes is prohibitive.

This means that Whiting will only ship large orders to distributors such as Veniards as and when the buyer has a large enough order to be able to swallow the vets fees in the overall price. This is why Lakeland and others are often out of stock, they can't just order 5 of this cape and 2 of another, they have to do a years order in one go.

Whiting will not ship directly to the UK unless that certificate exists.

Having said all that, I have had the odd item sent through the post from US dealers and it has been opened by customs and allowed through.
But given the rules that are in place I wouldn't want to risk it with a high value lot (plus customs always open anything that has $100 value on the label and charge VAT on their estimation of the value.) They also open low value lots seemingly at random.

For example, A package of 20 packs of hooks which cost me $40 plus $5 postage got hit with a £9 inspection fee plus Import Tax at 15% on an estimated value of £75 thus adding nearly £20 extra to a £25 order.

The best way is to find out when your friends are visiting the states and get them to bring one or two capes back in their luggage.

Regards

[guest21]

Contact Jim's Fly Co -

Jims Fly Co Saddle Hackle

I've bought quite a number of capes and saddles from him, good prices and good service.

However, midge grade saddles are hard to come by wherever you try to source them.

[arkle]

Quite a few years ago, I guy I knew was importing Hoffman saddles from Chris Helm. Chris was then selling more capes than were being sold in the U.K. so my contact was getting very good deals.

There was a time when the U.S. Postal service was on strike, so Chris sent them via UPS & eventually after twice having to go to Avonmouth docks where UPS had a base. He eas told on the first visit that "they had to go through clearance & would be another week" So he turns up again with money in hand to pay the extra "duties" etc & was then told that the materials had been "incinerated" as "they didn't know what they were". We were both sure that they went to someone's private collection. So if you do decide to import don't let them use UPS.

[Chris Reeves]

I'll second that, I've had parcels delivered by UPS and then 6 weeks later you get a demand for import duty and inspection charges by which time you have disposed of the packaging and cannot argue the toss with them . If you do get a UPS parcel keep the packaging for ever!

Barstewards!

Regards