Thanks Mark.

I had considered shipping my swords, but then I was worried about them making their way through customs, and possibly delayed. When I fly to the UK it will be ONE direct flight, so I'm hoping that with the TSA lock I can get away with checking them with the rest of my luggage and picking it up 10 hours later (flying out of the west coast).

Flying (direct) with swords, rather than shipping them, if circumstances allow it, is the way to go, I reckon: then you can ask the nice but inquisitive folks in Customs in person not to put their sweaty fingerprints all over your shinys!

Perhaps it might be a good idea to wrap the blades themselves in a light cloth or something within the case? Then secure the cloth with rubber bands so any inspection would show the shape of the blade? It's not foolproof, but if someone was in a hurry they might not stop to unwrap the blade all the way.

The two times I traveled with swords, once I packed it on my check in luggage and the other time I used a poster tube. They sell them at art museum typically (at least thats where I got mine). If you pack in a lot of padding and tape the stopper shut, it just looks like you're transporting art or posters. Poster tubes tend to very study too. The only problem is that they'll probably work best for Japanese swords and/or swords with smaller quillons...