Salaams all ~ There are a lot of aluminium handled Nimcha in both Yemen and Oman. They seem to be melted down from old pots. The scabbard marks on the project item appear to be African Yemeni or even Omani. Melting pans is the sort of thing I imagine itinerant gypsy style groups wandering from village to village where they were involved in tinning and making tools etc. In Oman these tinkers were called Zutoot.
It should be remembered that, here, silver represents the Moon (Gold the Sun) and the cheaper lookalike variants were tin and aluminium and in the case of gold ~ brass. That is why marriage chests (dowry chests are studded with brass studs.To reflect evil.) In terms of the other silvery stuff ~ "liquid moon"~ Mercury ! That was until quite recently (pre circa 1970) often rubbed into babies gums to ward off evil ~
I think these aluminium hilts are ending up in a variety of places including souks like Muscat and Sanaa and being taken as basic swords though not perhaps as weapons... by Bedouin handy to have around as a sort of badge of office and for the occasional dancing pageants, weddings, feasts, meetings of leaders etc etc enacted all over Arabia. The blades are invariably very low quality.
Here's one similar below;
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.
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