I love a nice gnarly stag too but it's my first time with Pere David stag (didn't even knew the name before today) and i must admit it got a really strange and smooth texture (for stag). Polished Pere David stag reminds me a lot of my old Otter Ivory bone... if
both of my cover were big fat chunk of unequal stag i would probably go with the polished stag but for now, i'll keep my weird texture stag and unequal scales... at least as long as i take the time to decide what material i will choose for the recover! Wood is a classig... but a nice jigged bone, gnarly stag or even micarta would look great on that pattern!