[ariel]

Gentlemen,
This is definitely not my area of knowledge and passion, but I could not resist the e-bay offering.
Therefore, I would most appreciate your help and opinions on the age and quality of this tajong.

The scabbard consists of two parts, and they are separated. the line beween them is not straight, with a small gap, but doesn't look broken. The largest " wing" has some small losses of wood.

The handle is covered in some kind of black varnish, and a lot of it. The beak looks like copper. I took it to local jewelry store to test for swaasa. They got a new laser gizmo to test for precious metals, and the beak was the first time they actually used it. I was told that there was no gold, but may take it to another store to retest ( they did not seem to know how to use the gizmo very well).

The blade is very healthy, thick, with no active rust and no obvious losses. However, it is completely covered with dark patina-like darkening.


To show the details of the carving and the blade, I photographed them both with and w/o flash.

Should I try and remove the varnish? How? should I clean and polish the blade? Should I try and re-glue the scabbard? Fill the gap?

Do you need any more pictures?

Thank you very much in advance.