Pappenheimer (and rapiers in general) hilt length

[10thRoyal]

Good afternoon y'all. In having looked at several hundred pappenheimer and rapier images over the past month I've been intrigued by how much the length of the hilt seem to vary.

For example, in shayde78's recent wonderful thread on pappenheimer he posted the following image of his own sword
(http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=25744)

Originally Posted by shayde78

He follows this by saying he is about 6'4.

Meanwhile my hand (I'm 6'3) seems to be dwarfed by the hilt on my own pappenheimer.


So my question is what is the reason for such a disparity in hilt sizes? I feel like if the purpose was for better sword balance then why not just change the pommel size? Or was this just to boost someone's ego by having the "bigger sword".