Dear Cornelistromp,
I know what is the clue -together with Michael- to identify with 'certainty' 19th century produced katzbalgers : the so-called 'pas d'ane' construction (stairs-like) of the hilt, a technique to work metal that did not exist in the 16th century but which existed in the 19th century and later on. This would be indeed actually a clue to formally identify later katzbalger replicas.
Importantly, you should be aware that the presence of some parallel lines along the groove of hilt does not always imply a 'pas d'ane' construction, and related later technology. I have carefully inspected under optical magnification the metal hilt of my katzbalger, especially focusing inside the grooves on both sides of hilt: the parallel lines that could be observed along the groove are NOT a 'pas d'ane' construction, but clearly hand-made file marks, that are more or less linear and regular, not continuous, more or less deep into the metal, depending on the part of groove you are looking at (orientation of lines sometimes left the groove itself further demonstrating unambigously it could NOT be a 'pas d'ane' construction !). These files marks -clearly identify as such- correspond to a hand-made finish of the hilt's groove with appropriate forgery instruments existing in the renaissance period.
Hope this would help in preventing of some mistakes regarding sword authentification,
jm
NB: To illustrate this, some parallel lines of hand-finish can be also seen in some pics showed in the new thread of Michael (see his period Saxon patrons)
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...573#post136573