ERD50
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Depends how far you want to go. Looking at the wood, it seems to be a fairly open grain wood - I might remove the rivets and replace with a very dense wood - like cocobolo, corteza amarilla, ron ron, etc. ...
Probably overboard though. lol
I just might take this path. I think I probably have enough scraps of cocobolo to do a few knives, if not buying small amounts like that is no big deal. That could be a fun and manageable project for me.
Cocobolo is so oily it is difficult to glue. As you get down to fine sandpaper, and polishing it with cloth, the oils come up and it just seems to provide its own finish. Beautiful too. Yep, this could be fun - man, with cocobolo handles, those knives would look sharp (hah!).
Later, I might google this subject, and maybe write to the Chicago Cutlery people about their wood handles.
-ERD50