Hello Alex,
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Having some resemblance to wax resist method, it lacks the details that such method would produce due to application of a template that results in sequential repeats in the pattern. I do not see such repeats, nor the template being used here. To me this indicates true mechanical Damascus, in line with such stated description on the blade. Is there another resist method that could be used to yield a random pattern, etc?
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The upper part of the blade is clearly pattern-welded: the darker sigmoid pattern (my added green line) is the lowest pw part.
The pattern below this line is clearly faux in my book: despite trying to look like pattern-welding, it is quite erratic and just doesn't make sense from a blacksmith POV (I have indicated a few of the more obvious areas that look problematic. I believe this was done to also decorate the inserted edge en suite with a similar pattern.
I reckon not many lay people will recognize this trick; I believe the etched pattern (or rather the wax) was drawn by hand - a technique also utilized in other regions of the world (in varying quality).
Regards,
Kai