Finished up a little camp knife this weekend and went with skimpy scales on purpose

I made something similar last winter, a little bird-and-trout style blade with the front third of the tang left bare. You're right about the indexing, my thumb finds the spot where the scale ends without even thinking about it, and that's now my favorite knife for fish work. I used walnut instead of micarta and sealed it with boiled linseed oil, and I'd say the exposed tang section is the part that's held up best over a year of wet hands and lake water. On the lanyard hole, I made the same mistake my first time, hand drilling after heat treat beacuse I forgot. Then someone on here suggested clamping a scrap block behind the tang so the drill bit exits into wood instead of chattering on the bench. Helped alot but yeah, those holes belong in soft steel, no question. One thing I'd pass along for your smaller versions: when the scales get short, pin placement gets touchy. On my second try I put the rear pin too close to the scale edge and the walnut cracked when I peened it. Left a little more margin than feels necessery and it's been fine. Also found that a slight forward taper on the bare tang section makes it feel even quicker in the pinch grip, might be worth trying if your next one is a slicer. Curious how the jimping works out for you, mine turned out too aggressive the first go and I had to file half of it back off.

Funny reading this because I did the opposite with my last camp knife and went even longer on the scales, mostly because my hands are big and the bare tang section on a friend's knife chewed up my index knuckle after a day of batoning through some ash. The exposed tang on his had a squared edge he never softened and I felt it every grip. So when I made mine, a 3/16 inch O1 blank, I wrapped the whole thing in tarred hemp cord instead of scales and kept a short section of bare spine up near the choil for a thumb ramp instead. Gives me the indexing you two are talking about but keeps the pinch grip area padded.

The lanyard hole thing I felt in my bones. I drilled mine after heat treat too, through the cord wrap actually, and the bit wandered enough that the hole sits a quarter inch off center. Learned to drill everything before the steel ever sees the forge now. On the smaller sizes, I'd guess the bare tang helps more as the knife shrinks. My little paring knife in the kitchen is basically all tang and it's the fastest thing I own to pick up and orient. The bigger the blade, the more I want grip where my hand actually lands.

Reading this has me thinking about my one and only knife so far, a kitcheny cleaver-ish thing where I wrapped the whole handle and honestly it still feels blocky to me a year later. Never crossed my mind that leaving steel showing could work as a grip reference. Question for anyone though, what do you finish the exposed section with? Mine is 1084 too and the bare spots near the edge rust if I even look at it wrong in the kitchen, so I'm assuming you'd want somthing like a forced patina or oil on a blade that gets wet. Is that a pain to keep up with or no big deal once it's established?

Been putting a bare stretch on most of my knives since the 90s, back when everybody in the club thought I was just being cheap with the micarta. One trick from the old days that still serves me well is draw filing that exposed section lengthwise with a fine file, then a quick rub with a gray scotchbrite pad. Lays the scratches all one direction and it hides the use like nothing else. For a finish on the steel I just force a patina with a vinegar wipe, let it sit overnight, then oil it. Never had rust creep in even on knives that ride in a fishing vest all season. The pin holes I always drill at the same time as the lanyard hole, before the steel ever sees the forge. Saves the headache you ran into.