Hooded katar or pata with a backsword blade
 

I recently acquired this hooded katar or dandpata gauntlet sword with an unmarked (possibly European?) backsword blade. I thought I'd post it here since these are rather rare.

The sword is 104 cm long overall. If anyone wants more stats I can do some measurements.

Some of the rivets look a bit polished up so they may have been replaced (or just subjected to cleaning because they stick out a bit), however considering the way the patina on the blade follows the langets and the patina on the peen on the inside of the grip, I believe they were together historically. I hope you agree.

I'd appreciate your thoughts, particularly with regards to dating. I believe I've seen this more developed type with the reinforced bars across the hilt attributed to the 17th century but it would be good to have this confirmed (or corrected). It seems to correspond to stage 4 in the image below, but unfortunately the subscript does not give an indication of age:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/attach...1&d=1165773032

Related threads:
Katars with more hand defence PIC
Katar (????) for comment ...

There is a similar one on a well known dealer's site but it is currently for sale so unfortunately I can't cross link to it.

More pics to follow, uploading is rather slow today.

More pics (last 4 are from the seller)...

Last of the seller's pics, with a bit of different lighting.

Seen this type and style attributed from 16th to 18th Century.

The late Roy Elvis has one in his book that is attributed to 17th - 18th Century.

Another one sold on a dealers site has it as 'A very rare Tanjore Katar
17th/18th century Indian sword'

Has anyone here encountered a backsword blade on one of these (or on a regular pata) before? That strikes me as rather peculiar for the type.