On the texturing. First I traced the whole handle shape (before the scales were on) on a piece of paper. Then I drew in a design that looked good to me. I cut that design out and used it for a template.
Next I finished the whole knife out so that the texturing was the last thing done (besides sharpening). I laid my template on one side and aligned and centered it up. Traced around with a pencil.
Then I used a 1/64" diamond round burr in a pencil die grinder (rotary tool) to carefully trace my pencil line and start to carve a channel. Then I smoothed and evened up this channel that is now the border with needle files, riffle files, dental picks...........basically anything and everything you can make, buy or find to get the job done.
Once the border is carved, I stippled everything inside and right up to the border with that same 1/64" diamond round burr.