Hello forumites,
I believe we'd first had to ascertain that this really is not any genuine European blade from the most likely period before starting to go off tangents! From my point of view there is no need to refer to remote cultures as a putative origin for this blade...
1. As mentioned, welding a tang of soft iron (or very mild steel) to a blade is a time-honoured technique (in Europe as well as globally); it avoids breakage and unnecessary expenses (for higher carbon steel). IMHO there is no hint for any later repair work on the blade.
2. The blade is laminated. This is again a time-honoured, basic technique to combine different qualities of steel - with lower and higher carbon content, possibly also with different amounts of impurities like phosphor, etc. - especially if one wasn't able to control the steel quality or needed to work on a limited budget. If you economically forge-weld heterogeneous material, you tend to end up with laminations as seen here (regardless of the origin being Europe, India, Indonesia, Bangsa Moro, China, you-name-it...).
3. The structure of the laminations does not suggest that the blade smith was aiming at welding any controlled pattern especially done for show; I see no need to invoke sources famous for elaborate pattern-welding (Celtic, Alemannic, Viking, "Damascus", India, the SEA archipelago, ...)
4. In pretty much all cultures the quality of blades does vary (widely).
5. As an aside: There are lots of laminated blades originating from the South Asian subcontinent and neighbouring regions (as well as blades forged from crucible steel including wootz); and blades from both steel types may also exhibit elaborate pattern-welding if the blade smith did choose to do so.
From what I can glean from the pics, the only unusual feature of this blade seems to be that it got thoroughly cleaned, probably polished, and apparently treated with an etchant like ferric chloride or phosphoric acid in the not too distant past (if stored well, this look can be preserved for extended periods though). If such TLC were given more often by inquisitive collectors, I'm sure we would be more used to seeing laminated blades from all over Europe with contrasting layers of steel.
I can't clearly make it out from the pics: Are the edges (inserted or forming a central layer) made from steel with higher carbon content? This may be conflated by losses from sharpening during prolonged use and/or restoration.
BTW, good quality blades tend to become somewhat springy when they loose a considerable amount of material from prolonged wear (and/or restoration).
Regards,
Kai
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