That sounds fair Tordenskiold, I suppose each must follow their own protocols.
For this case, I would never have even thought of Denmark, but felt sure that either German or possibly Italian forms were at hand.
As you held the 'ace in hand' with the information that the sword belonged to Christian IV of Denmark, and asked 'what it was'? and who made it? there was no benchmark or clue to start with and as the form is far from common (as noted in Norman) I honestly had no idea where to start.
Luckily I have resources; Valentine, Norman, Boccia & Coelho; Oakeshott etc. and Wallace Collection, so it took literally going through all of these to discover the information I shared with you. As the form clearly had nothing to do with Denmark in the first place, the information you held was moot, so of no consequence.
As you say, being tactful........I do feel good about what I discovered, so thank you. It is a most interesting sword, and I learned from it.
Best regards
Jim