There are ways to shape handles without gluing them to the tang... It's trickier though. I've done it with both bolts and pins.
Bolts require that you counter sink for the bolt head and the nut. Also, this works/looks better with micarta since you can burn the hex bolts into the material to get a tight fit.
With pinned scales my sequence is this:
1. Trace outline of tang on material (this allows me to see how the grain or features of the material will be positioned)
2. Rough cut the outline (I cut just outside the outline to leave a little wiggle room.
3. Drill the scales for pins/tubes (I drill my tang pre-HT and use it as the template, clamped to the scales.)
4. Dry fit the scales with pins/tubes (I don't use expoxy at this point)
5. Sand and shape the scales.
6. Carefully remove the scales (I use a pin that is slightly smaller dia. to tap out the handle pins, keep track of which pins come from which holes since they're likely different sizes unless you have flat scales.)
7. Refine the ricasso end of the scales and make sure they're even.
8. Cut new pins that are slightly longer if you plan on peening them. If you're not peening you can reuse the old ones but replace any that have bevels on the ends. If you have a beveled pin and it doesn't go in just right you'll have to do some sanding to get things flush again, if it's a steep bevel this could change your handle quite a bit.
9. Epoxy the scales to the tang and with the pins in the correct holes. Clamp everything together tight. Peen the the pins if you're doing that step.
10. Once the epoxy is fully set, carefully file/sand down any proud pins, sand off excess epoxy, and start finish sanding the handle.
Using screws is pretty similar except you counter sink the holes and you'll want to have spare nuts and bolts since you're likely to sand/grind on the ones that you use to hold the scales in place during shaping. You have to be careful not to grind on them too much or you might not be able to remove them. For example if you sand off the slots on a philips head bolt.
So that's how this complete newbie has been doing his handles. There is probably a good bit wrong and a whole lot of room for improvement in there. But it does make it easier to toss handle that I don't like or messed up, without fighting epoxy. On the last set of scales I only did profile shaping in the dry fit. I kept the scales flat for glue-up and then did the contouring afterwards.
If more experienced makers and smiths want to point those things I'm doing wrong or how I can improve, I'd appreciate it.
