Maybe for the hand wraps if you don't want to do the spiral wrap, have leather around it with a sewn seam along the sides. Here's what I mean. http://9thknight.deviantart.com/art/Kukri-of-the-Foregoer-466380276
The way you have them modeled so far; how it wraps around the handle it looks like they are individual strands instead of 1 or 2 straps of leather. The pic of the handle on the hammer, the way its wrapped compared to yours..if you can get that overlap sculpted like that, it will help sell your handle also.
Looks good so far...not sure if you're going to work on the wraps more but the overlap of the cloth could use some more work. The transition from one loop to the next looks off.
I really like where this is going, good work. The wrapped grips look a little bit like large pink rubber bands though, I'd darken up the blood (or leather) a bit :D
Been working on the sculpt a bit - adding knots and making the wood seem more sturdy like Zetheros and my buddy pointed out. In the meantime I've fixed the wraps and optimized the model down to 3,264 tris. Optimized Model Opt with wireframe
Check the edit - I made the wraps about half the thickness they were before - still trying to decide on what to do with the color, because a lot of the dyed leather reference I have is pretty faded from use OR super bold from being cerimonial