It arrived today, and boy is that hilt weird. First the dimensions...
It's 7mm thick at the base. After the ricasso it tapers to 5mm and stays that way until the false edge at the tip.
The blade's 35mm wide at the base, tapers to 32mm after the ricasso, then towards the tip it widens back to 35mm again.
There's eyelash marks struck by the hilt, but that's the only mark I can see.
The hilt is filled with some shiny metal, maybe zinc. It looks like the hilt was dismantled, filled with zinc, and then put back together again. I don't know what you call it, but the bit of the hilt that's supposed to slide over the scabbard has been pounded down, so it would have never fit in an Indian style scabbard again. Even in this condition the hilt's quite solid and sturdy.
The blade's a very heavy, thick, nice piece of steel. It's in pretty good condition except towards the tip where it's pitted. there's a few tiny failed laminations but otherwise it's a very well built blade. It's very slightly hollow on both sides and the edge is still pretty sharp.
Is there a snowball's chance in hell the blade is wootz? Should I bother trying to etch it?
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