Due to the maker's mark, I'd think it's a quality blade and from the true Nimchas that I've seen, I'd be surprised if it's a spring steel blade.....my own assesment is that that's a 100% battle sword that probably has many tales to tell, some on a par with the fiercest Moros.
Cattle horn carries a surprisingly wide range of quality and characteristics due to the fact that cattle themselves come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.....the Massai cattle, for instance, often have horns longer than any Texas longhorn, some almost rivaling a carabao in length, and as you know, that's a BIG horn.
The really long horns are probably the only ones that would have enough solid area to make a hilt as thick as yours, Federico, with the majority hollow, and indeed, layered, much as are your own fingernails........basically horns are usually for the life of the animal, while antlers are shed and regrown for the rut each year (which makes some of the huge moose and elk racks truly amazing!) and usually found on males only, although there are exceptions.
Horn gives a very tough, durable material that's often mistaken for plastic, and, as Tom pointed out, it can be rendered much more maleable by heating it, plus it can be readily carved, cut and shaped lending itself to some beautifuwork in the hands of someone skilled in working with it.
A sometimes disadvantage is that it can peel in layers, particularly from a chip or cut, also if allowed to become thoroughly soaked, but this same characteristic can sometimes be an actual advantage, as the roughness allows for a better, non-slip grip whereas a highly polished hilt can become very slippery if sweaty or bloody.
Rhinocerous and giraffe horn, by the way, are particularly highly prized as sword/knife hilts because by being composed of compressed hair bundles, when it becomes wet it expands and almost "clings" to the hand, seeming to magickly "glue " itself in the grasp, a trait that makes it ideal.....in the former case, the suggested masculinity of the horn itself also has inherent talsimantic properties (even though horns are found on rhinos of BOTH sexes **grin**),to the point that even shavings are valued and put into potions and native medicines.
Take the attitude of a rhinocerous as well, notorious for attacking anything anytime anywhere and you have a potent magic material that has literally almost resulted in the extinction of the animal.
Whew.....sorry for getting carried away there....zoology sometimes does that to me! **grin**
Mike
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