The handle will only affect weight, nothing else, so a balsa handle beats all.

I haven't got spider silk in there, but you can compare it with GEF whips, which are in there:
http://www.attnam.com/topics/450/Weapons_Comparisons

Nobody else seems to be getting this bug. You should get your eyes checked

Or some heavy fire resistance and armour.

Well, my opening post in New forum game, by yours truly thread suffered something like that, so I tried editing it, but it just made a copy at the end of the thread, without fixing the invisibility. I can't delete that extra one either. I get

Fatal error: Call to undefined method Topic::get_permalink() in /var/www/html/attnam/web/classes/post.php on line 72

Izzy's spoiler question: Yes.

Octiron does less damage than mithril. If you want damage, don't harden it. If you want better accuracy and blocking, go ahead.

If crashes are becoming frequent then the most probable cause is that some file or other became corrupted. It happens sometimes. If it keeps crashing, I suggest you simply download it again. Easiest way to fix it.

Yeah, I lost one of my best characters to BSoD, I know how you feel.

Some issues with PMs I'd like resolved quickly if possible...

Group PMs don't work (sending a PM to multiple people at once)
PM sent box (and, presumably, inbox) doesn't let you see all PMs in said box

This one's not so urgent, but you can't delete multiple PMs from the box, you have to go into the message and delete them one by one

Advanced editing is still broken. I'd like to change the topic of my latest thread...