Hi Ariel,
I should develop here.
For Nimcha, takouba, kaskara, the differences are obvious with local hilts and imported blades. With Japanese swords, it is another league and a "national sport". Blades were kept in families for hundred of years, mounted and remounted on new hilts, up to the WWII.
Elgood's great discovery was to say "eh guys, it is not because you have an Indian sword with an Indian hilt and an Indian blade that the sword has a unique provenance". It was a big kick in the ass for many curators...
