It makes intuitive sense to me that the widest part of the blade is wide BECAUSE that is where the forward pivot point is. That way you get both more mass at the COP (relative to the shoulders) and more distance from edge to midrib, allowing a more acute geometry. The example Craig posted above reaches its greatest width at only 13.25 " from the hilt, barely over half the blade length and only 6.75" from the COG. So maybe they don't necessarily need to match up exactly, but should probably be pretty close to one another. Also, I notice that the distal taper goes convex starting at 15". So overall, I would say 16.5-17" is probably a really good guess.