Just adding this link to a thread which discusses a similar textile covering on the grip of a khanda.

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...574#post280574

Not sure if this suggests the Pappenheim may have spent some time in South Asia, or if wrapping the grip in a textile impregnated with pitch was a fairly widespread (albeit not common) practice. I know the grip on the Pappenheim was originally wrapped in wire, and this example retains a single Turks Head. Yet I remain intrigued by this surviving material.