Thanks, all. Regarding the handle: I take a piece of leather and trim it into a rectangle. I use superglue (gel) and tack the long edges that will become the top and bottom of the handle. This hides the raw edge and gives a little ridge that runs around the handle. I scarf one of the vertical edges (i.e. trim it to a taper) by using double-stick take to tack it to a scrap piece of wood and running it over the belt sander. Then, using super glue, I tack down this tapered edge parallel with the bow, roughly centered on the back of the bow.
Then it's a matter of laying down lots of super glue, pulling it taught, keeping it aligned, etc. until I get about 1" from getting back to my starting point. Then I trim the tag end to length, tack it with double-stick tape to the scrap board and trim it in like manner of the belt sander (being VERY careful not to nick the bow...YIKES!). Then I glue it down, trim it up, and call it good.
There's got to be a better way than this, but it works for me and ensures a handle that conforms tightly to the contour of the handle.
Hope that helps.
