Hmmm, not sure if stain will be a problem with the leather overlays or not. As I show in the link in my last post, it gets saturated with super glue. Well, some of that super glue gets on the wood and frankly is part of the reason I'm able to get such a smooth transition from the leather to the wood. I'm wondering if the stain will penetrate the wood differently where the super glue is? I guess it could be sanded some but when I polish the overlay, I usually polish the leather and wood like it is a single piece and I think it may be very difficult to try to sand just the wood to get rid of the super glue without messing up the leather or causing a ridge of some sort.
Maybe do one of those blended stain jobs that are dark at the tips and fade towards the handle?