Ariel,
Thank you so much for the clarification on the regional terms for these swords. It has only been in recent years that the actual term used locally for the 'Khyber knife' became known, and quite honestly I was unclear on the spelling and etymology of the term, selavah....which I recalled phonetically as silliwar (?).
The term 'salawar yataghan' was for many years expressed as a sort of collective term for these in general discussions, and I always wondered what 'salawar' was (I actually thought it might be a place at one time).
Then the term 'yataghan' seemed bizarre as clearly this huge knife had obviously had nothing to do with the yataghan form. I thought perhaps some sort of 'Hobson-Jobson' term the British came up with.
Colloquially however, they referred to this as a 'Khyber knife'....again defying literal reason as typically they were more of a sword with blade of knife shape.
On the illustrations, I should have made it more clear, and shown the entire blade on the 'dove enlaid' Khyber, though it seemed obvious as one had a bone grip. My intent was to show the type of hilt which was in cases placed on the Khyber blades, and I thought that the back fuller (which creates the T spine) was visible enough to distinquish .
The second weapon is very different, and indeed a 'production' model from the Machin Khana (1890), again the objective was to show where this alternative hilt form sometimes placed on Khyber's came from , and why.
Since we were discussing 'alternative' hilts being mounted on Khyber knives, it seemed pertinent and a salient factor.
It has never been entirely clear where these heavy and deeply channeled blades came from, but they were indeed used in the assembly of these swords at Machin Khana (c.1890s) where the royal stamp was added.
As the Machin Khana was primarily British subsidized and the focus on production was on rifles, I always thought this might be the reason for the 'bayonet' like construction of the hilt, much like 'sword bayonets'.
Again, I digress
attached, full Khyber previously noted.
And return to the original question...why in the world would anyone put a khanda hilt on a Khyber?