These blades were supplied to East Africa in The latter half of the 19th century so I see no reason why this is not from that time. When you think about it there were trade routes to the east. Also many parts of SE Asia the area we are talking about, may have depended on trade blades. We have seen European trade parang blades in Africa recently. Some communities may not be particularly wealthy so making a sword this way makes sense. Perhaps using an old hilt saves expense, perhaps only having to commission the local smith only to make the hilt means a cheap quallity sword. The handle does reflect a cheap functional nature.
