Great reference piece Michael and thank you for posting it for comparison. Because there is no evidence of there ever being anything attached at the butt end of the hilt I think that if my example originally had a guard that it might have either been an S-guard, a straight guard or possibly a small oval guard. As Gene pointed out, there is not much room for a guard between the blade and hilt. That and there is no evidence of any wear on the exposed bit of the tang or on the front edge of the ferrule that I would expect to find if the guard was made from steel of any thickness. Then again if the guard was of brass or copper and was lost to being broken, I would have expected it to have at least left some evidence of existing such as a bend or gouge to the brass ferrule or damage to the hilt material itself. The only other option would be that it was one of the very thin steel guards that you see on quite a few examples of these swords that like I suggested before just rusted away over the years. These are just my thoughts on this and whether of not they have any validity remains to be seen. I would again like to thank both you and Gene for your kind words and thoughts on this.
Regards,
Robert
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