Cutlass or Sabre Workbench

So I posted a few teaser shot of this some time back, and I wanted to actually make a workbench out of it, albeit a slow moving one.

Basically, so far I've made the blade blank, a collar for the blade (both similar in construction to the katana parts) and started the basket hilt. This is kind of my own design for a sky pirate costume, but I'm borrowing heavily from different historical weapons.

Like I said, the collar and blade are very similar to the katana parts, but the hilt is something new. To accomplish the task, I've glued several layers of wood together that have different curves. I then sanded the corners and the "steps" of the layers smooth. I haven't quite finished that process yet. This seemed to be the easiest way of getting the complex curves I wanted, and used the least amount of wood.

Next I plan to cut some kind of complex design through the hilt, to look somewhat like a schiavona. Because schiavonas are pretty schweet. Also, I need to file a vine pattern into the spine of the blade.