Help with Pedang / Translation

[CourseEight]

Thanks so much for your welcome and your input! Upon taking your suggestion I found this interesting thread:

http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001774.html

with the pictures of said sword in this thread:

http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/002598.html

The discussion was especially useful in reference to the writing near the base of the blade. The characters seem to be a mix of hindi and arabic numerals and arabic characters, so it fits with the above discussion. When I have the time I'm going see if there is a similar mathematical pattern.

I agree the writing does look arabic, and I had hoped for a date, but I can't seem to find an appropriate string of numeral characters, except possibly in the cartouche. There might be a 1 1 4 9 written there, which would be 1737. The problem with this is that the 4 is in hindi but the other numerals are in arabic. Is mixing numerals like that common? It did occur on the above mentioned sword (the backwards 'B' character).

Additionally I have not seen writing on a blade done quite in this manner. Normally it is either written on the blade or carved into the blade, but on my sword is stands out from the blade, as though the whole blade were carved or etched around the writing. Are there any other examples of such a technique, from Sumatra or elsewhere?

Thanks again for your input and I look forward to what else you may find!

--Radleigh