Nice looking knife.
Copper gets really hot in grinding. It also stays hot, so allow lots of cooling time between passes.
Grind the excess down very slowly and/or file by hand ( Sawing off the excess and hand fileing is best). Finish at the slowest speed your grinder will go with fresh belts. If you don't have VS, shape with files and finish with sandpaper by hand.
Most folks like the two-tone look of canvas Micarta.
Sanding to a finer finish often helps. 400 is the minimum ( and what I use), but 1000 will often have a different look.
Buffing with a clean buff charged with nothing but a tiny bit of buffing wax also helps. Be cautious buffing around the copper Corby bolts, as the metal swarf can stain the Micarta, requiring re-sanding those areas.
Rubbing it down with an oil will return the color in many cases. Some folks use baby oil, others a drying oil like linseed/tung/teak or an oil/varnish finish like Tru-oil. Try it out on some scrap first. Once rubbed into the canvas fibers, rub off all the excess from the handle.
