Thanks Glen,
my knowledge in these types of sword is, shall we say, limited
I suppose musket/cannon ball symbolism is possibly unlikely ..but possible....I cannot find any reference to a definitive explaination for the 'beaded' design ....or why there tend to be 5 (3 & 7 much less so, but interestingly all 'odd' numbers, whether or not that is significant ... I do not know )
Kind Regards David