Very, very nice.
Rick, I think it is aesthetics and the nature of forged iron. In contrast to the example I recently presented, this beauty shows mirrored rods forming the core with very little loss of the material (by that, I mean the periphery of the rod is responsible for this pattern.) The wide mirrored rods were also used in Migration Period and Viking Age Europe and were likely flattened before installation to achieve the width of the bands, the pattern being retained, just compressed. A great piece of smithing!
The other freshly etched kris with narrower pattern-welded bands and fullers shows a pattern from deeper in the rods, likely exposed by stock removal to form the fullers.
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