Thanks a bunch for your thoughts.  I haven't yet received the item, so I can't say yet if there are signs of shortening, or if there are signs that the blade was removed from a katar.  I have never seen a katar with such a "ball" at the base of the blade, nor one with a snake going down the middle, so I'd love to see pictures for comparison.  I've found this thread on the old forum about so-called "katars on a stick"
http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000729.html 
No pictures, unfortunately, but this one (much later than mine I think, and far more obviously a katar) ended on ebay recently:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA:IT&ih=009 
I'll certainly post pictures of the key areas when I receive it!  I appreciate your help,
--Radleigh