Sanded off all the blue as much as I could getting the original fiberglass handle was tough definitely worth it though took my Dremel and sped the prosses up by an hour. Then I got some pine from a branch that fell into my yard squared it up, threw it in the microwave to get out some moisture and got it fit on the hammer sanded it, and torched it just to be safe with the moisture and put on some Early American finish. (i not sure if this is because of the fact that its green wood and hasn't dried for too long but the handle is really fuzzy looking ?)

Wile it looks good pine may not hold up as well as say hickory, ash, pecan, mulberry bowdarc etc.

@Charles R. Stevens 

if i ever need to replace it i have a dogwood tree in my backyard that i can trim down and that some really hard stuff 

a ponderosa pines Janka hardness scale is 460 lbs while dogwood is 2,150 lbs 

Don't forget to dress the face and peen while you're at it!

Looks much better, by the way.

Of course what you want for a handle is NOT hardness but flexibility. Generally woods that make good bows make good handles.

Be careful: re-handling is the gateway drug to forging your own hammers. Once you start down the dark path....

Rehandled, dressed both ends and stripped off the funky blue paint within a couple days after I picked it up at a garage sale couple years ago. Need to put a larger radius on the peen though.