I just couldn't wait!!!

[josh stout]

I doubt that you will find any overt reign marks but you never know.

Please post as much about this piece as you can. There is very little out there, and what I have seen is not usually as good as this one, so I just don't have much to go on.

The presence of pattern welding is the dividing line for me between weapons and display, but of course a high end temple piece could well be pattern welded, and some of the higher end "weapons" used in official military displays are not pattern welded.

Another possibility is that many martial arts schools have weapons racks for display and practice that often have over size examples.

I am still betting it is a nice example of a weapon from the imperial regulations, but we shall see.
Josh