[Ian]

Today I visited a veterinarian friend who has an X-ray machine. By cranking the machine up to 90kV and 0.5 mA I was able to get some very respectable views of the tang through the silver wrap on the handle. I first positioned the blade flat on the plate, 0º, and then took pictures at 30º, 45º, 60º and 90º of rotation from the horizontal plane. I expanded each digital image and referenced measurements to the diameter of the silver wrap at the same point. By measuring the width of the tang and of the silver wrap at several points along the tang in each of these views, I found that the tang diameter at each position was the same in all views [within the precision of my measurements (± 0.2 mm)]. This effectively excludes a flattened or square tang construction, leaving a tapering round tang as the remaining possibility.

Unfortunately, the image files were too large for my thumb drive, so I will have to go back next week and retrieve the images. I will post them here once they have been resized.