You need to get in touch with Ken Hamilton. He has a collection of originals and probably is the foremost expert on the French trade knives. I have seen no conclusive evidence that any of these knives were shipped without handles. The French scalpers were 3/32" to 1/8" thick. Most were half tanged and tapered in both directions. The tangs were tapered to a near knife edge at the rear. The most common handles were of boxwood secured with two iron pin rivets of about 1/8" diameter. These are listed on recipts and manifests as small, medium, and large, and extra large. No exact measurements listed. Grips were seemingly made as a one size fits all, leaving a profound over lap underneath on the smaller than large blades, and the grip frontal areas extentended slightly into the blade area. This gap was filled with cutlers rezin or left open. Most often these grips were of an overall octagon shape with wide center flats on the sides. Most French scalpers are of the dropped point design, while the English favored a raised point sweeping curve design, although the French and English often copied each others designs. The English scalpers most often have three smaller pin rivets through the grip, of about 3/32" diameter, and most English blades were thinner than the French, being about 1/16" to 3/32" thick. As far as the acuall blade dimensions of the originals, you would have to contact Ken. I am sure they all varied slightly, but stayed within general sizes, and patterns. These I have mentioned are the most common found, but there are many other types that were imported, and show up in digs.
