Don, I would favor a simple naturally curved handle. The heart of the matter, for me, rests in the simplicity of constructing a single piece handle. As mentioned earlier, I have one which broke and was repaired, it was constructed from straighter grain and is fragile, I did not take a little more time to find the right piece of wood. I am now stocking, meaning, looking for and saving handle wood. A laminated handle verges on mass production, something I want to stay away from, next thing you know they are available to the masses and the mass will not know the roots from which the handle arose. To learn how to use a tool, one should make the handle as the first steps, just as a philosophy.

Historically, how many laminated handles were made?

Tim