Tim, the handle is really made of steel - have you ever seen a rusted zinc alloy??? And there was a LOT of red rust under all this dirt on the handle (well, you may see some rust on original pictures too). What is even more interesting, the steel on the handle is well hardened: I have used very hard dentist instruments for cleaning the hundred year old dirt from the handle, and they hardly left any scratches. I don't know, if the hardening was made before or after the decoration work...
I have also tested the handle with a magnet a minute ago - yes, it is steel!
The yellow (brass) connection lines you may see also on some other
steel handles, for example on 2 Afghani pulouars I have.
