Jerry,
In addition to what Chuck wrote, my experience is more from original bayonet scabbards and leather sword scabbards from 18th century up through the Civil War. Many of the throats had a locket attached.
A common method of securing the throat, tip/drag and middle support band (can’t remember the correct terminology) was with a piece of wire bent into a “U” shape. The rounded bottom of the “U” shape was on the inside of the scabbard and two sides of the U came up through the leather and through small holes in the brass or iron parts. They used a hardwood or even metal mandril stuck in the leather (when they were sewing it up for the tip/drag and middle support band) and the rounded “U” of the wire sat on that while they pounded the two wires down over probably chamfered holes and then filed them off smooth with the surface and polished them so it is very difficult to impossible to see where the two sides of the “U” came up through the throats. This was commonly done on what would be the back side of the throat so it would be against the body and not noticeable and almost invisible. OH, they used brass wire for brass parts, iron wire for iron/steel parts and I have even seen silver wire for silver parts – for the “U” shaped wires.
Back in the early 80’s, only custom makers were making leather scabbards for M 1850 swords and they were hard to find. GOOD repro’s of these swords and scabbards were not yet available. I located an original unmounted blade and that started my project to assemble my own sword for reenacting. I used original grip, cap, and even found and original wooden grip. I used “dug” parts for the scabbard and sewed the scabbard according to the period method. I used the “U” shaped wire to mount the tip/drag but also glued the tip, band and throat on with what is now Loctite Hysol Epoxy Patch Kit 11C – which is a black colored glue. As a reenactor who did a lot of “Tacticals” or War Games and went through streams, thickets, brush etc and did not “baby” the scabbard at all, the scabbard parts never even came loose.
Gus