@gblair - Thanks George, I appreciate it, and I'm sure you are correct. I doubt that they would have been dying leather frequently, but... since you can't see either in the original Frazetta painting, I'm going with the idea of sting ray leather or something like that... didn't the Japanese sword makers use some form of sea creature skins for handle wraps so they didn't become slippery in battle.
@fiveten - Thanks Spiros! I'm very happy with how it's progressing.