Nicks on the blade do not unequivocally certify it as a battle weapon. Practice fencing, horseplay or just plain vandalism of the owner and his kids are likely to be equally responsible :-) Also, edge-to-edge contact was not frequent in oriental combat: they used shields for defence or just body movements.
The re-hilting made the sword virtually unsuitable for battle. I guess the original one was just like the usual pseudo-shashka, with long pommel, like in Gav's examples.
The material of the original one is anybody's guess.
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