This is a very old thread, but I might have some insight, although I would have to do more research.
A couple of things.
1. You'll note that most of the older knives, particularly the pocket knives, have the visible striations from the sawe-cut, and are generally very thin, and riveted to the knife liner.
2. The larger, fixed blades with the "Staglon" are much larger, and molded to look like stag.
3. I did a destruction test on a newer model Golden Spike, and as I recall, the handle was not a solid piece, but was mostly hollow, with support posts. And also, the "rivets" were glued on, and the entire handle was glued together on the seam, with the pommel also sewn in.
I woiuld have to dig out the various parts which I saved, but I believe there were holes in the tang with round posts that interconnected from one scale, to the other, through the tang, and were glued.
Point being, the earlier, original handles were likely solid Delrin, saw-cut and riveted (certainly in the pocket knives, and likely on at least some of the older fixed blades). And the newer "Staglon" were molded, and were hollow.
So, essentially, the older stuff was saw-cut into small slabs of the appropriate thickness, and the new stuff was molded, and was mostly hollow to save money.
They are certainly still functional, until the knife is put to hard use, or the handle receives a hard blow, or is used to strike something.
I believe mine broke from excessive leverage while I was striking the blade on the spine of a much tougher, larger knife as hard as I could. I cant' remember which broke first, then handle or the blade, but both broke. And I can't remember what the tang looked like.
I saved the parts as part of my research into knife construction. I'll see if I can find them and confirm.
But the take away is, the "saw-cut Derlin" was a legit product, and the Staglon, was not only fake stag, but a cheap, fake, hollow handle, meant to deceive unwitting consumers into believing they were getting a solidly constructed product, when the were in fact getting cheap "garbage".
Although, as I said, perfectly functional until put to very hard use, which most knives NEVER are. Heck, most people don't even use their knives.
And these handles would serve perfectly well for most use such as camp kitchen use, whittling, light bushcraft, skinning, and butchering an animal, etc. Just don't use them for chopping, batoning, throwing, pounding, hammering, etc.,.
But hey, what do you expect for the price?
Hope that helps. Any additional input is appreciated.
Was there a little symbol next to the word Delrin like TM or any other territorial squirting?
Very informative post! 
