I'm going to jump in a bit here to assist in flow. "Ideas" for handles have been suggested but this has not been voted nor decided on so that part of the conversation seems to confuse and should be left alone for now.
We have clearly set a Woodcraft to be the blade choice so now are currently voting on two things:
-Blued or Nah
-Convex (smooth) or hollow grind (with hammermarks).
The next thing to be voted on should be blade size.
Once we get that "honed" in, we can discuss what should be done with the handle. In the past, guard style came next (tall, standard, S guard, half S, etc). Handle details will then follow. Keep in mind WWII handles get blued steel guards, in which USUALLY (but not always) are paired with blued blades.
Designing knives isn't quite as simple as it seems now is it?
No reason for any frustrations to come of this my friends. Like James told me when we first met in 2012: "KNIVES ARE FUN!"