Indian Composite Piece For Comment

[CourseEight]

Arrived today; construction exceptionally shotty and probably done for resale. Handle part was a metal pipe, and the whole thing was held together with a single brass screw. Took 5 inutes to take apart.

Blade is probably NOT wootz but is a bit scratched so will have to be polished to be certain. Doubtful though. The tang has obviously been altered. Any thoughts as to the original handle form?

Now the handle itself is quite interesting. As already noted the appature is round, and of the same diameter as the pommel, which is open on top. One new observation is that the handle is hollow; I'm not sure what that indicates, except that it is lighter weight than one would expect. But I think the big question is concerning the hindged construction of the guard/pommel. I was able to pop off the pommel before removing any other parts because of the hinge at the top. Are there any other examples of such a construction? Off the top of my head, the only reason to make something like this is to make it "easy on easy off" which would imply that this hilt as designed to accommodate easy switching. Any thoughts on this?