Jim, I am far from being an expert or even someone well versed in the subject of Polish and Zaporozhian Cossack swords, but I have enjoyed reading your thorough posts on the subject. I have learnt a lot from them, and I am sure that others will also benefit from the thread in the future.
On the main question of the thread - how to make a grip to fit the sword, I would leave it without a grip if it were mine. You can guess at a grip based on surviving specimens, but there is no way of knowing how the grip of this particular sword looked like. From a historical point of view, adding a grip will temper with the authenticity of the sword as a whole, and from a collecting point of view, a new grip will not be cheap if well made and fitted, but will add $0 to the overall value of the sword (unless it is passed as being original upon resale, which will be fraudulent).
I am sure that everyone has his/her own opinion on this issue, but mine is to leave it as is: the lack of the grip does not detract from this nice sabre.
Teodor
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