Hi guys,
Nice piece! Yours is a standard pattern Qing military officer's saber of the mid 19th century, probably of northern origin, possibly Beijing. The greenish grip wrap was once a deep indigo blue.
While they superficially all tend to look the same, these come in a rather wide variety of qualities. I'd say your blade is among the better ones, with very precisely cut grooves. The work on the mounts is more standard quality for this type.
Officers got fixed payments in silver to purchase their equipment, and so focussed on what they found important. In your case, he put extra care in the blade.
These Islamic style grooves probably made their way into China already during times of Mongol rule and were produced throughout the empire by the 18th century. See:
https://www.metmuseum.org/pubs/journ...f.bannered.pdf
I've had several over the years. The pictures posted above by Kronckew are from my site. Here's the full article:
http://mandarinmansion.com/chinese-officer-saber
Another one, with rare blade:
http://mandarinmansion.com/chinese-s...se-tooth-blade
An exceptional one:
http://mandarinmansion.com/rare-chin...ist-core-saber
And finally, an example of the plain type that the regular soldiers would be carrying:
http://mandarinmansion.com/19th-cent...military-saber
As for restoring, I'm not sure where you are located but if I were you I'd send it over to Philip Tom for a good fix.
I hope this helps!