Gabriel, I pein both sides with nickle silver pins stock. It's soft enough to punch out with a stainless punch of the same size.
Making progress now. I thought you'd like to see the way I scribe the butt cap for the contoured shaping with the stag. This can be an exact thing or a loose interpretation. I start exact and let the stag tell me what to do. This knife has a woods theme, with vine, leaf, antler, and an acorn. So, I got it reasonably close. This piece of stag is pretty "busy" with so many ins and outs that I just give a close impression of following the stag. On the other hand, if the stag had mainly smooth and regular ins and outs, I would stick to it exactly. Each knife is different.
First I drill a hole for the tang screw to pass through since this will be the stationary point to give it reference. I blacken the back side of the butt cap material and screw it in place so it wont move around. Then I scribe the contour of the stag with an awl leaving the bright scratch showing against the black background. You can use layout fluid, I used a sharpie.
I cut it out using the very edge of my flat platten with the belt running right on the edge. You can get most of the contouring done pretty quick like this. It dont take very long at all. I change belt a few times always allowing material to remove right up to the line and just a hair past it.
Now it was time to make the finial. I dont have any making pics but I can describe it. I soldered a small block of SS on a machine screw to fit the coupling nut attached to the tang inside the handle. This block of SS is about 3/8 inch square and has a shallow hole to stick the machine screw into for soldering. I get it soldered and shaped and now it's in the handle. It looks like this.