Thanks for your comments Jens. Your are right about the decoration, I am certain that there was some decorative etching to the blade....but the rust had all but destroyed it (not enough to 'work out' what it could be)

and now the cleaning has totally removed it all.
I may be lucky, perhaps there may be a chance that after an etch there may be some 'shadows' of these designs......but I'm not 'holding my breath'
Hopefully, my next pictures will show a wootz pattern.......