well,, there is no way to tell at that size,, I once sold a 8" perfect striped tig to a fellow member here,, and after a couple of months it started changing the pattern and ended up with a very nice random pattern,, Tigrinus4life if you happen to see this post a couple of pics of your old tig,,, I still havevn't been able to figure out the reason for the squiggly pattern,, and I have kept a lot of tigs,, if someone has any information on this topic please do share it,, I am very interested in knowing the reason as well.