[Jim McDougall]

That is a wonderful blade, but as noted, the addition of a hilt which has nothing to do with kaskara's. The pommels were discoid and depending on period etc. there were peculiarities. Typically on Mahdiyya period examples it was a simple wooden disc

The first example is from Mahdiyya period 1883-1898, and believed to have been produced in Omdurman arsenal shops with the acid etched thuluth calligraphy. These seem to often have brass guards contrary to the typical kaskara. The wood grip has a disc over which the leather is tightly wrapped. I cannot recall for sure but may be goatskin. There was an article on one of these conserved in a museum but must see if I can relocate. Possibly Ed will come in as he has the most insight on these details.

The next is a simple example which is most likely early 20th c. but the basic wood disc is wider as with the 'Ali Dinar' period (post Omdurman, 1898-1914) style. These are typically associated with Darfur as the next example, and these seem to often have these European 'astral' symbolic blades which are regarded as German and perhaps Styrian produced in 18th century. There seem to have been numbers of these kinds of blades brought into Sudan just pre Mahdiyya and in circulation.

The next example is the 'Ali Dinar' type (Reed, 1987) and with silver work, crocodile grip, note the large disc.
These continued being made well into the 20th century as per the outstanding paper by Ed Hunley which is archived here.

So restoration of this sword blade to proper Sudanese circumstance might be best considered with these examples to give perspective. As with the 2nd example it does seem that simple wood hilt with leather wrap covering in strips probably goat? hide would be workable, but these type blades seem to have been more aligned with the Darfur types of sword.

The next example with crocodile foot hilt (scabbard is the hide) is with a guard similar to those shown in Reed ('87) with Darfur types. Note the astral blade very similar to yours. In my opinion these were most likely related to weapons used by slavers which were prevalent in south Darfur regions, and from these blades circulating in Darfur.

These are my own opinions on these particulars and I hope they will bring some further discussion and comment as others might have different thoughts or information.