Frank Reile

The first Japanese sword I bought was a Muromachi period wakizashi in polish, but it was tired. I kept it for a few years and then sold it. Frank R.

Thank you Brian, Sylvain and Ed.I will pass on the info to the owner and see what he wants to do with it. Sylvain, does your katana have a mitsu-mune(3 sided mune) like this one. F. Reile

Sorry for my bad photos. F. Reile

More photos. F. Reile

Here are more photos. F. Reile

Hello everyone. A friend of the family owns this Katana. I told him that I would try and find out about his sword. I have come up with Yokoyama Kozuke no Daijo Sukesada on one side of the tang and Bishu Osafune-junin on the other. Have not been able to find any photos of a blade tempered in Suguha by him to compare. I have compared the signature with many others in my books and they look different. The blade's mune is Mitsu-mune. The only swordsmiths from the Shinto period that I have been able to find that did this were Umetada Myoju, the Horikawa School and Echiizen Yasutsugu. Also have read that there are many forgeries of this swordsmith. It looks like Gimei to me. What are your thoughts ? F. Reile

Here is a nice Kaigunto that I have. Frank R.

Thank you Steve for having a go at it, when I first took the tsuka off, it looks like an easy one to translate, but It has been a tough one. F. Reile

Here is a photo of the tang. Sorry for the bad photos of the blade, not very good at photographing them yet. F. Reile

I just picked this sword up yesterday at an antique auction. There were 15 other Japanese swords there in military mounts. At least 13 of the 15 others had machine made blades, and the other two were ruined by previous owners buffing and sanding them as was the case of most of the other swords. I was amazed what high prices they were going for. I usually only purchase swords that are papered and from reputable dealers, but there were so many so I decided to go to the auction and see if I could get a few deals.. I think the beat up wooden saya was the only reason why I was able to get this sword for a some what reasonable price It has a thick beefy blade. The habaki is 1 1/2" wide and has a cutting edge of 26 7/16". It looks like a good quality made blade without any flaws. Although I don't collect gendaito, I plan on hanging on to this one for a while, at least until I find something that I can not live without. I have been going through my books and looking through the kanji pages and am having trouble. Any help with the translation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. F. Reile

The arrowhead that I had purchased came in on Friday. It is very nice and I am very happy with it. Thank you again Gilles ! Frank R

Jay, he has two swords of mine still. Frank R.

Yesterday I called the Santa Cruz Sheriffs department and the California Attorney general. If more of his victims do the same, maybe they will help us out. Frank R

Has anyone been able to locate Eric Roush ? I, along with many others, am looking for a current address and phone number. Frank R

I have purchased a few items from Eric. I am very pleased with all of them. He does a great job with his photos. Frank R

I would also like to say that I was very pleased with the set of books that I had purchased from Grey. He was very pleasant and knowledgeable. The books were packaged very well. I will definitely be buying from him again. : :D Frank R

Eric still has a katana and a wakizashi of mine for just about 2 years. Frank Reile

He still has two of my swords from almost two years ago. I convinced him to send back one katana before he destroyed it and also owes me money for not doing work to it. I did not find anything bad about Eric on the internet before I sent him my swords. I guess I didn't look hard enough. But after a while of no responses from him, I found this message board and learned a lot about him and that I wasn't alone. I am going to talk to a lawyer in California this week, if there are enough of us fools out there, maybe we can get this thief. I am sure in the end this will cost more than what my swords are worth, but I don't care anymore. Frank R

I am not able to change my vote either. I do not have any boxes to the left. Frank R

I voted for two copies first, but I would like to increase my vote to three copies. Frank R.

I also am waiting to receive 3 swords back from Eric. He has had them for well over a year. When I told him to stop working on them and refund me my money, he would not answer any of my many calls and emails. Finnaly two months ago he emailed me and said he would be done with my swords and have them back to me in three weeks. But I am still waiting. I just want him to send them back untoutched with a refund for the work for their restorations. But I know that will never happen. I am talking with a friend of mine that is a lawyer who is good friends with one not too far from Eric. I will keep you all posted. Frank R.

I also appreciate all the effort that you all are doing to try and make this happen. I will purchase a set or two of these books even if the price is somewhat higher than is planned for. I would rather pay a little more for a higher quality product. Thanks again to everyone that is involved, especially Markus for this great piece of work. Frank Reile

Hello Joseph. Make sure you do your research on a polisher! I didn't do my home work on Takonomakura Restorations like a few others here. He has had some of my Japanese swords since last February. I recently searched his name and found this message board. After reading all the posts, I told Eric that I didn't want him to do any work on my blades and to send them all back with refunds. That was early October, and I still have not heard from him and I still have not gotten my swords back. Frank R

Hi. My name is Frank and I just joined. I found out about this message board after searching for info on a certain polisher that I am having trouble getting back some of my swords, but that will be another post. I have been collecting Japanese swords for four years now. Most of the swords that I have aquired have come from family members and friends of the family that have been collecting military items for many years. I am fascinated by the Japanese sword and want to learn as much as I can about them. I have purchased many great books on the subject and read them when ever I get a chance. Studying blades and trying to figure which period they are from and which school made them is fun, but I am not very good at the latter. Trying to translate the signatures is also a challenge for me, but is rewarding when I can do it. I know I have much to learn on the subject. This site is great. I know I will learn a great deal from you all. I look forward to talking to all of the members. Frank R