Beautiful job. Did you just wash the handle or sand or a combination? Please share. The finished product is awesome and I would like to do something similar on my most recent score.
Sorry for the delay, didn't realize there was more replies. I did not wash the handle to start. There was no grease or dirt on it, just the old, weathered wood. I started sanding with 220 grit (only 1 pass), then worked up to 1000. Three coats of tung oil followed with three coats of semi gloss spar varnish after the tung oil. In between spar coats, I wet sanded with 1000 grit (which probably wasn't necessary, but the final product is super smooth). If I were to refinish an original handle again, I would consider drilling out the original rivets to refinish the undersides of the wood and get new hardware in there. It would provide that little extra piece of mind knowing that the ENTIRE handle has been refinished.