The second lot of pics posted by Teodor also IMHO show a later addition of a guard to an original hilt. Whilst the decoration on the knuckle guard and quillons is similar in both cases, the actual guard itself would, in my opinion not be much use in protecting the users hand due to the thin metal used.
Though obviously not the "original" guard, none the less the maker has spent some time to nicely decorate his work.
Maybe we could term this a "tribal" sword. I have a number of these which show grades of making, ranging from quite good to really rough.
Stu
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