Very nice dao, thank you for sharing. I like the straight forward service weapons too. In regards to your wrapping question, I have a couple similar to this one, and have handled others as well as gathered a large photo collection of this type of sword. From my experience it seems that some times they are wrapped, and sometimes left just with the wood bare. I asked another very experienced Chinese sword collector the same question recently and he too has had the same experience. I know in the past I have looked very closely at the wood grip material and seen residual evidence of a tight wrap from the past. I bet you have already tried that. Also, some materials like wide bands of cloth are less likely to leave the marks that a cord might. In any case, if you are interested in wrapping it in a pattern often seen on military dao I have a pdf of a method in English I would be happy to send you, just pm me.
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