Well, after many months of debating, I finally took this one to a welding shop to have those more knowledgible look at the braize. It was agreed by all that it was a modern repair. After these folks tried to melt away the brass unsuccessfully with acetyline (turning the surrounding metal a cherry red and burning some of the old paint off), we decided on a differnet route. I had the braize ground smooth to see if my hunch was correct. Happily, it was. This old cutlass was constructed with the tang inserted into the hilt and somehow secured. The modern braise was done to repair a hair-line crack approx 1/8" from where the tang enters the disc guard. After it was shaved down, it looked much better, with the crack just barely visible and the blade still intact. To date, I have only seen one other sword made in a similar way in Neumann's book. Still, among naval collectors, there is no denying that private purchase swords had many, many different forms.
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