I have a question about the hilt/cross-guard on this sword. I have spent some time (only a few hours) looking at other swords/reproductions and this is the only sword of this style that has leather on on the blade side of the cross-guard.

Looking at my sword (I did mention I owned one of these didn't I) it does not seem that this "disc" of leather can be continued through the cross-guard but I can't be sure. I would think leather between the cross-guard and the tang would cause it to loosen up rather quickly under any use.

My question;

Is this the only sword to have this feature and does the original (museum piece) sword have it as well?

Second What purpose would this serve? Keep sword from rattling, Keep out rain, critters etc.

Note: I read the excellent review by Björn Hellqvist on this site and noted that my sword has what appears to be a cold peined hilt not a split nut as his was. Different production run I suspect. The top picture on his review shows the leather piece i'm talking about.

The primary function of the leather piece you see is to keep rain water out of the scabbard while the sword is in it. I don't believe the Hanwei William Marshall is a close copy of a particular museum piece, it's just an attempt to reproduce a representative sword of the era. I have no idea whether there is strong evidence for the use of this item as early as the preiod that the William Marshall sword is intended to portray, but it became fairly common in later centuries. Of course the older the sword, the less likely that traces of any such leather piece would survive to the present day.