Looking at the up-close photo, I will stand myself corrected. This was no sand paper. It was a belt-grinder and sand-paper.
There are two options here for me.
1. The threaded tang indicates that this blade was mated to a pommel that was not original to it. In other words, this blade was recently taken off a composite sword. The blade decorations may have been refreshed and re-cut. We see that in the antique firearms market.
2. The other explanation for a threaded tang is that the blade is 19th century, from an old style officer's sword-rapier, like an Austrian infantry sword, or a British household cavalry dress sword, both from the first quarter of the 1800s. Blades of this style were in vogue with the upper echelons of the officer class for a short time, and were produced to imitate the earlier styles.
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