Well I think that's a more than satisfactory explination. Thanks for the excellent answers and clearling up my mind on this one. This otherwise would have continued to bug me everytime I saw the dang thing.

Just ran across another rather odd sword that fits what we were talking about in this thread. Image originally posted over at SFI. Sword on the right has a curved blade but straight hilt. Since the sword that this thread was originally about had a curved blade as well as the bent tang, I wonder if the hilt curve was intentional since the one attached below seems to collaborate it?

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It's hard to say, but sometimes backsword type blades curve forward in the quench.