Your fine shipping swords, but the people working the post offices always try and refuse them as weapons. Just call it an artwork when they ask and your fine.
You are best using the following postal methods (do not use any other).
Small wak/tanto: Royal Mail International Tracked and Signed.
Long wak/katana etc.: Parcelforce Global Priority
Simon,
On a well done hadori polish, it completely vanishes once you hold the blade at an angle, allowing you to see the hamon and activity easily. It's hard to show this effect on a photo. It's only the poorly done amateur hadori that mask the hamon and activity.
Yes I'm really pleased with the end result. I've also got two tanto with Paul at the moment for shinsa but I will likely give him another sword for polishing next year.
Unfortunately I don't have many photos of the sword before it was polished. That patch of coarse hada on the shinogi was already like that before the new polish so it hasn't really changed as such.
Got my Wakizashi back from Paul today. Couldn't be more pleased with the end result, excellent polish which shows the activity in the blade really well.
Paul's service is excellent, I'm collecting a sword from him next weekend in London. Anyone in the UK who wants to send a sword for restoration should contact Paul as it's a good opportunity to avoid shipping/customs hassle.
I purchased the Francis Allan book "Japanese Imported Arms of the Early Meiji Period". Was well worth the price as it is an excellent reference.
In the book there is an Enfield Cavalry carbine with the same Hiroshima registration marks. I contacted the author and he was quite surprised to see another and suspected both carbines may have come from the same Han unit.
I discovered the gun has another inscription on the brass butt plate. Looks like a rack number (5857) from being stored in an armoury perhaps?
There is also another line of kanji on the stock but it is very feint and hard to see but definitely ends with a yama.
I found an old book that stated that the clan in Hiroshima were trained in British military tactics in the late 1860s. I presume this gun could possibly be a result of that training? Or is it more likely to have been a private purchase by a samurai?