is it possible to have more than one texture for each model an example is ive modelled and textured a sword the model is split into 2 peices handle and blade they also have seperate texture files for the 2 peices am i able to use this or am i restricted to one texture map? cheers

You can attach a seperate texture map to each item on the texture list. Depending on how the NIF is setup depends on if you can do that or not.

so i can import the 2 peices of my sword into nifskope and attach a different texture to each part will this work fine in game do you know? thanks

Each 'NiTriShape' usually has its own texture.
Texture sets in the CK can then be added to each 'NiTriShape' as well.

another noobish question can we use spec maps aswell or not?

Yeah, though they go inside the alpha channel of the normal map.