I would offer a few possibities as to the difference in patina between hilt and blade. Perhaps there was a surviving scabbard for a good part of the blades life that protected much of the blade. The hilt would have remained unprotected while the blade better protected. A broken tip of the scabbard could have allowed more exposure to the blade tip than the balance of the blade. Also, another factor, is maintenance probably would have been more often for the blade than the hilt. I doubt the hilt was ever oiled or wiped down while I am sure the blade was. Another factor is that the blade and hilt are of different steel. I am sure a well forged Soligen blade of good steel would corrode at a different rate than the iron/steel that the hilt was made of which is probably a bit more crude than the blade. All of these factors would play into the hilt being more corroded than the blade over a period of a few hundred years.
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