nickn2,
You are correct in that most appear to be from finger prints - likely mine and my brothers when we were kids horsing around with dad's WWII stuff. The blade has cleaned up nicely by hand. If I could take decent photos (you probably saw how blurry they were on the ebay listing) I think you'd be surprise at how good it looks. Frankly, I was afraid to touch it for over a year until I learned the proper polish to use and the way to polish a cross grain blade.
