Quote:
Originally Posted by
Pengranger 
Yes spot on. Photo below.

The marks are from where nails have been hammered through the metal cap and into the end of the wooden shaft. This keeps it in place. The ends of the nails are cut off and machined down thus leaving a small scratch.
If you look
very closely you can see this since the colour of the metal for the nail and the cap are different.
It's seen better on this James Smith:
