I recently came to inherit my grandfather’s sword that he picked up during WWII. I’ve been doing quite a bit of research on it, but this is confusing me. As far as I know, he did not modify the sword in any way nor do I believe he did as he picked it up for memorabilia. Pics:

Sorry for the horrible quality, but it was the best I could do.

So far, from what I can tell:
The hilt up to the hand guard belongs to a shooting hirschfanger,
The hand guard itself belongs to a hunting hirschfanger,
The blade belongs to a shooting hirschfanger, and
The scabbard belongs to a hunting hirschfanger.

Do correct me if any of that is wrong, but the real question I have is: Why/who modded the sword like that? I can understand it probably didn’t have a scabbard, so picking up the next one you could find that fits is only logical. But the hand guard? That, I don’t get.

Edit: Believed to be made by Carl Eickhorn due to the partially faded squirrel logo near the base of the blade.