About the scales: They are Walnut Burl....and your 100% right, those super thin woods scales are a real pain to work with, and I worry so much about how fragile they are, along with shrinking and expansion issues. The scales are finished out with 6 coats of Tru-Oil, after the carving. The only thing holding them on are the screws. I've tried gluing on folder scales in the past, and it usually turns into a train wreck in one way or another. The worst part about gluing scales on a folder is that the glue will often get somewhere that you don't want it, and mess something up (usually the lock). There's also the problem that once scales are glued on, there generally no way to take the knife apart for cleaning/repair (if ever needed), without totally wrecking the knife.
Over the years I've discovered that even stabilizing will not stop wood that thin from shrinking or expanding......minimizes the movement, but it still moves. It took a lot of talking from the client to get me to do the scales.....in my experience there is just too much to go wrong with wood that thin/fragile.