In my opinion the patina on the dedicated NSKK piece on page 7 has been applied using "liver of Sulpher". My wife makes silver Jewelley as a hobby and I have seen this time and time again.
Three reasons lead me to believe this
Firstly if you make the solution too strong when you brush it on, it gives a distinctive mettalic blue tinge like "bluebottle finnish" the same as on the dedicated example shown here on page 7.
Secondly if you look at the picture of the dedication and scabbard fitting have a look at the burnishing in the chasing. Effectively there is a dark line that follows it across on the scabbard fitting. I believe this is caused by a brush stroke following the chasing that had the liver of sulpher on it. You can also see the same odd mettalic coloured patina on the crossguard. It would also age a treated dedication as well.
Lastly look at the picture on page six where you can see the chains as well. No patina on the chains at all, this is because they are not silver or silver plated. Liver of sulpher will not work on these areas at all so they show the actual patina of time since attached.
Now I dont expect people to believe me on my say so. But I can exactly simulate the effect and finnish shown here in ten minutes on a set of crossguards and post a series of photographs to document it so you can make your own minds up?. I can do that at the weekend for comparison if that will be useful?.
