Thank you Gentlemen.
Here are closer-up up views of the threading. I wonder if the obvious diagonal weld line in one of the views indicates material added at the last restoration to 'beef up' the end of the tang so that the same threaded tang button could also be re-threaded inside.
I have also wondered how much of the state of condition that we see in Drummond's drawing published in 1881 was the artist's reconstruction of how he thought this sword had once appeared and how much may be Victorian era restoration that has now perished. There is also evidence that there had been considerable decoration on the forte of the blade that has long been almost completely rubbed away. Further down on each side of the blade there are running wolf marks that I failed to photograph. Published accounts regularly speculate that the 'ail' inscription just beyond the reinforcing rod might be the end of a longer now hidden inscription, but I believe that it was added around the same time as the basket hilt and rods.
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