Yeah - not much lathe work. Some of them are not even symmetrical, so will be all hand shaping. For the symmetrical one, I'll use the lathe to round the handle - that's it.
That's part of what makes this interesting. Sometimes I get the actual product so I can see exactly what it is, sometimes I am just working from a photo. I had a guy last year found a photo of a townball bat that sold at auction for something like $70,000 (really ornate handle) - he wanted me to try to make something similar. I had an idea as to the dimensions, so made some calculations, and made one up - now it's actually a model I sell. Kind of cool.