Hi and thanks for everyone who has been responding to my request.
I looked very closely at the inscription side. It is hard to tell from the pictures, but the filing or scratching starts right around where the inscription begins. If you look at my previous picture that says ‘Another view of Inscription”, the filing begins on the bottom left side of the picture and angles up towards the right. The first two letters are almost untouched except for the mid-section of the first letter and very top of the second letter which is evident by the darker section you see in the picture.
The filing doesn’t go all the way to the front of the blade. There are some light scratches going the long width of the blade, but I believe this is from the scabbard because (1) the consistency of scratches are on both sides of the blade and (2) the fit of this blade into the scabbard is very tight. I have to use a lot of force to push it all the way in.
My theory (or hope), is that who ever filed this blade might have been either a bit lazy or did the job half hearted. Most of the concentration was on the signature section. When I rotate the blade under a very bight florescent light, I swear I can still see the shadows of most of the signature accept for the very center peak area of the blade. There are a few rust spots on the blade. The biggest one is right above the marker mark. Maybe that is what Russell is seeing as part of an older marker mark. It is very hard to try to capture on digital camera what I see with the naked eye. I did take another picture which I’ll include now. It’s a bit blurry, but it captures the area where the filing begins. As you will see, it doesn’t go all the way to the top of the blade. I know that some forgers take original blades and etch the inscription on them to make it more authentic. With that in mind, I suppose someone could have gone through the trouble to first etch the full inscription, and then file out parts of it to make it appear like an original. Is there any way to tell if that is the case here?
Thanks,
Michael