Apologies for the radio silence, and thanks everyone (namely Tony) for your patience.
I am back from my short vacation in exotic Romania and I attacked the handle. It is now shaped, maybe sans some minor tweaks for symmetry etc. Butt is domed. Everything is at 320 grit so if there are no nasty surprises I am might be on a home stretch. I hope to shape and finish pretty much everything pre-glueing. Blanace point right now is at the plunge line.
I originally wanted to do some stippling to give the handle more visual appeal but I am not satisfied with my experiments to do a real piece just yet. So this is pretty much how it will be.