Actually this is quite outside my normal field of study so I have learned a great deal here from the input from Mark, Victrix and Bryce as well as some very valuable private input from Mr. Richard Dellar, a well known author and authority on swords of England and France.
Your sharing of your own research findings have also been greatly appreciated.
I think we can feel pretty confident in the French resolution, but of course with one off examples, comparable examples are unlikely, so we remain at speculative situation.
Great discussion, and thank you for the opportunity to investigate this.