Rick,
My thoughts; Vietnamese Guom blade mounted in the simple manner of the people to the west of Northern Vietnam. The blade is the type most often seen in the hands of the Mandarin's entourage, the hilt type is seen within Vietnam too but the simple form seems to be to my eye mostly seen in Laos and Hmong knife and sword types. I am pretty sure Nathaniel has a sabre from Vietnam loosely following this hilt form too.
Its a nice looking blade with a better than average degree of finish to the blade surfaces were so many of the type are poorly finished showing a raw unpolished surfaces as is seen within your fullers. Nice traditional motifs too.
How it came to be within this, and I use the term loosely, "non traditional" hilt is anyone's guess as trade through from east to west and west to east was massive.
Gavin
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