We discussed this item a while back when it appeared on eBay. The auction photos are long gone, but I recall buying this thing because it was so unusual, and because I thought I spied something interesting going on at the forte.
The old discussion can be found here:
http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001880.html
Complete shot of the sword:
When I got the sword in hand, I could see nothing, and the thing ended up at the bottom of a file cabinet drawer with a lot of dha.
The subject came up again in this thread:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=793 and I took some photos in bright sunlight yesterday.
I noticed something I had not seen before at the forte. At first, I thought it was writing of some sort, perhaps Arabic. However, if you look closely, you can see what appears to be a tree, with the "writing" forming the foliage:
