Marvelous, Alex – that’s what we need, those are certainly tighter ladders than you run across in run-of-the-mill, everyday wootz. Now if you had a higher-resolution version of the photo, we could really start comparing. Without that, I can give an opinion that the AA blade’s ladders seem less sharply defined when taken in total, and perhaps more importantly - notice they have a light/dark (or dark/light, depending on which direction you read your wootz), two stage influence on the light reflecting from the blade surface, the zig-zag blades have a three stage dark/light/dark reflection on many rungs, depending on the angle of incident light.
Imagine a semi-circular trough cut into the wootz, and a more squared-off trench, the first leans more towards a left side, right side reflection, the latter towards left side, bottom, right side.
But hopefully we can scare up more examples, to bounce opinions off of.
Rand, I don’t suppose you kept a copy of one or two of those photos you sent to Figiel a decade ago, that could be digitized and posted?
To further answer Mark’s questions:
Yes, grinding & reforging creates that squeezing of the bands, and the bands can have an effect on reflected light like the grain of a figured wood like curly maple, the closer the blade is to final forged shape when the design is cut the more pronounced the effect.
Angle grinders and similar abrasive devices have a small contact patch with the item being ground into, so it is possible to cut curved lines – but later forging can also make a straight line curve as well.
Too many variables!