Tulwar for comment

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Kubur

Looks like markings on Yemeni sword...
Of course doesn't mean that the blade is Yemeni...
But deep crude engravings or stampings don't look European to me...

I'm with you Kubur, I have seen these kinds of groupings (the stars in V configuration and usually a 'comet' or moon as seen here, on blades in Arab context, often the 'Zanzibar' type nimchas.......used in Yemen.
It is hard to say where these markings were applied, but it does not seem they were European work, but seemingly copied. It has been suggested that some of the entrepots receiving blades for trade networks were duplicating various markings they had seen in the volumes of imports that came through.

These 'stars' are more like asterisks rather than the 'cogwheel' which is a disc with points surround. The cogwheel represents, as previously noted, a machinery element from the mills which produced blades.
The 'star' was an element of cosmological groupings.