I also do not recall having ever seen a Tifinagh inscription on a blade; signatures may be found on silver and brass mountings, however. Likely this is related to the severe superstitions against iron workers in that traditional culture.
I have spent many hours trying to resolve characters and design motifs out of corrosion and polishing noise on these blades. Many hours.
I may be wrong, but my tentative conclusion in examining the blades in my own collection has been that the light, etched engraving is local work, even though it may have been applied to what is clearly a European made (trade) blade and good desirable antique. In example I offer the
very first takouba to enter my collection (for which I paid way too much for in Morocco in 1999). The evidence is motifs that just do not go together in a European context. Even carrying this conclusion, I still drool and lust for your classy example of the forum.
The
takouba pages have become a painful reminder of the era of dial-up internet access, with their tiny images and multiple pages to conserve bandwidth and get a tolerable page load speed. So much of the static portion of the site needs a makeover...