[Silver John]

I recently picked up this Pesh Kabz at auction. It was described as an "Ivory handled short sword, brought back from Tibet".

This kind of thing is very much out of my wheelhouse, but it doesn't look Tibetan to my eye. My guess was that it originally came from Afghanistan, but I would greatly appreciate any input from knowledgeable members here. I feel confident that it is antique, but have no idea how to date it.

It was in poor condition when I bought it, but has cleaned up quite well with fine wire wool and WD40.

As it had an ivory handle (with remnants of copper liners) I had hoped the blade would be of matching quality and made from wootz. A quick dip in coffee after I cleaned it has revealed a very pretty pattern. What would you call this type of wootz? Crystaline? High contrast? Something else?

This brings me on to my next question, regarding restoration. Whilst the red rust has been removed, there are still significant deposits of black rust. Would polishing and etching the blade increase or decrease it's potential value? It would certainly make it prettier for display, but with my kukri collection I tend not to overly clean the blades, preferring their history to be seen.

Also, one of the ferrules is missing. It looks like it was welded on with silver. Are there any people out there capable of making replacements? Though I wonder if the cost of repair might exceed the value of the piece?

Many thanks in advance.