FrancisP

Hi, Sorry, forgot to mention the chap who restored the sword. His name is Cliff Schooling, a pretty decent guy. He's got a website, http://www.crandart.co.uk . Maybe you could have a look at it and tell me what you think. Kind regards, Francis.

Hi, It wasn't all that expensive to have the polishing and saya done, the pain in the bum was having to wait nearly five years to get it back. Not being an expert in swords, I wanted to see what the blade was supposed to look like and I reckoned that it was a fair gamble to fork out what was required to get it looking something like normal. The pictures don't really do it any justice. I've only got a 2Mp camera on my 'phone and they don't give a lot of detail of the hamon and the hada seems alnmost non-existant. I only really wanted to own a real Japanese sword in reasonable condition, so making money wasn't part of the plan, that's why I wasn't bothered about the outlay.

And here's another two. Kind regards, Francis.

Hi, Please find below pictures of the kissaki and nakago. Many thanks for the tip on how to remove the tsuka and menuki. Kind regards, Francis.

Hi, Many thanks for the information. It's pretty amazing what can be told from just you guys looking at a couple of pictures. Just to clarify, though, the sword wasn't found 'lying about on a building site', I had said that my friend found it on a building site. Perhaps I should have been more specific; he found it in a loft of a building which was being torn down, minus its tsuka and tsuba, but with the saya present. The saya seems to be of the military type, metal with a wooden liner, the laqueur is a mid greeny-brown colour. There's a motif on the metal hanger at the top of the saya of a ten-petal flower on top of another larger ten-petal flower. I'm at work at the moment, so I won't be able to get the pictures uploaded until tomorrow. I'll try to get them on in the morning. Kind regards, Francis.

Hi, Think I posted the last picture three times, sorry. Here's a couple more. Kind regards, Francis.

Hi, Thanks for all the informtion, especially the pictures. I've posted a few pictures of the sword below. As it's in the shirasaya, I haven't taken it apart, mostly because I don't honestly know if I could put it back to gether again! When I sent it away for restoration, I took a rubbing of the tang. The signature is similar to the second picture above, but it's got more characters on it. Please forgive the quality of the pictures. My camera is pretty basic. I tried to use the highest settings, so you could probably save them and zoom in. I tried to get a picture of the hamon, but I'm not sure how it'll turn out. Meant to mention in the first post. The restorer said that there's a couple of holes in the tang. This is supposed to mean that it's been remounted more than once. Many thanks again. Hopefully these pictures will help get more information. Francis.

Hi, Much appreciated for the link, I think I may have seen that one before. In relation to the pictures, I'm away on holiday tonight, so I won't be able to post them until about the same time next week. Kind regards, Francis

Hi, I'm a total beginner to sword collection. A number of years ago, I was given a sword as a gift after a friend found it on a building site in Ayrshire, Scotland. It was in pretty poor shape, chips out of the blade, no handle, etc, so I sent it away for restoration and to have a shirasaya made for it. It's back with me now, looking pretty nice. The chap who restore it mentioned that he had the signature translated and it was be a 'Chounsai Emura Saku'. I've looked online and have found a wee bit of information about him, but are there any books, specialist websites or organisations that would be able to look at it and tell me if it's a real one or a knock off? I'd be lying if I didn't say I was interested in how much it'd fetch too. I can post pictures if it'd help. Many thanks in advance. Francis Polding.