Rare Pilipino Swords....

[tom hyle]

I thank you, spunjer, for the pictures of a very nice looking old sword
Rick, rather than try to further diagnose from a distance why don't you send me your swords? Just joking Rather than try to further diagnose from a distance, I'll tell you a thing to look for. Look at the spine of the blade on the dog head sword, within the clip, at the very tip. If the surface is clean and etched well, and the hard steel goes all the way to the tip, you should either see the edge bit pinched in, or the hard part will end in a line that runs across the spine, perpendicular to the length of the sword (usually slanty, but only very slightly; nothing one would mistake for a scarf weld).
Even in person, there is often no real visual cue to decide between a weld and a hardening line; logic concerning the shape of the line and its relation to any welded grain there may be are largely our tools. There is often a different look to a weld than a hardening line, but one cannot always rely on that in my experiece.