As far as I can see, I would agree with Michael. I've never heard of cutting the blade tip on ceremonial swords (ahh, forgot the exact term, meaning literally "sword which is to be held"), but that was common practice for an executional swords.
Also, I've seen several swords meant for military use with similar thing on a guard (which is actually meant to prevent the occasional water from going inside the scabbard, for example, during the rain), but on all of them it was considerably smaller and made as aт original part of guard, not as a crude later addition which would be quite reasonable in case of an executioner's tool, fashioned from an old sword.
|