This is a fascinating knife! and as Mark has well noted, the blade is from a cut down repurposed blade which appears to have been a backsword (single edged) type. It is a blade indeed of Solingen manufacture, and I would think of 17th century by the inscriptions. These inscriptions often included patriotic and religious invocations which included traditional ecclesiastical symbols in many cases (similar to the crusades type also noted).
Possibly the blade is from English provenance as Solingen was providing huge numbers of blades to England in the 17th century, and often mounted in cavalry swords. That English blades would end up in the colonies in America would not be at all surprising.
As swords had become of little use as weapons by the 19th century with the advent of firearms, it stands to reason that an 'old sword' might be relieved of its blade for better use as a knife for practical purposes. This was often the case, as in Scotland, when blades were broken or damaged, to be repurposed with cut down blades as 'dirks', much as Mark has described.
Knives such as this were prevalent in the American frontiers, and these 'old blades' so remounted often became the sound sidearms used in these rugged contexts.
Fantastic piece!!! Its intrinsic value historically is most important. Such wonderfully inscribed Solingen blades are seldom seen in such context as far as I have seen, though they do occasionally come up.
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