Fascinating thread and pretty awesome detective work by all. I was hoping for a more definitive answer on this one, particularly with its double guards. I have seen another sword with a double guard on an auction page many years back with such a construction, listed as a "Spanish pirate??" sword. (Yes, now you know why i remember it so well-
) It had a similar patterning to my mystery sword that ended up being West African, possibly Dahomey, and also looked distinctly 'pirate'. See the old thread 'Colonial hanger, Spanish dagger or...'
My point in bringing this up is, can anyone else provide a double guard/double disk guard item of W. African origin to confirm if this is a common construction detail of this region?