Thank you for your comments. I'll try to have a better picture soon.
A sculpted guard and stag is not as simple as wood to get right. I expect to remove a small amount of bark from the stag right at the guard, but want to preserve the majority for it's character. So, I had to know just how thick my guard would need to be and then thin the stag slabs from the inside so their total thickness would be very slightly thicker than the guard's final thickness. How confusing is that!?