Coming back to this, I've been looking at paintings and they invariably show fringing. Sometimes on the front edge and sometimes on the rear.
Lots in Teniers guardroom paintings, with a green fringe, but this may be the same props turning up in multiple paintings.
Consensus, as far as I can discern, is its decoration, and HEMA experience says it stops blades sliding up off the edge at the user.
First: Otto van der Waeyen in Polish costume 1656.
Second: Rodeleros fighting during the Siege of Hulst 1596. Detail from a Flemish tapestry
Third: Met Museum.
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