Whew! I thought at first that was a new view of the same sword, & was gonna say now it DOES look like lamination; always good to read the whole thing!
Ann, we were going at the same time
Rick, I thought that, too; that the pattern is very fine-grained and awfully "randomly" active for laminate. Of course, I defer to Ann on this subject, and I'm far from certain; in person, maybe. Would hardening heat remove the pattern? I could see it would change it, but I thought it took more like welding heat (much hotter) to remove it?