Have you considered doing a hidden tang? If you want lighter weight, that is the way to go. Sure, you could taper the tang on the grinder, but if you are not practiced (my problem) or don't have quite the right gear (also my problem) it can be a bit of a PITA keeping everything flat, finished and then drilling the holes for the handle with the tang being angled.
The stock you have, and the 2mm liner don't quite work, but some 0.115" G10 from Alpha wouldn't be all that expensive. Then you could do a frame handle with the G10 standing in for steel around the perimeter, with a flat rectangular hidden tang as far back as the third handle pin. The lanyard tube would just go through the Micarta/G10/Micarta. If you were nervous about the G10 and micarta not being pinned at the front of the handle, you could use some blind dowel pins or bits of 1/16 brass rod.
You get the profile of a full tang, no need to mess with guard fitting, but lighter weight, easier handle shaping, no steel/handle glue line. The knives in these pictures used 1/8th blade stock and I never had any concern batonning on mine. I did use a closer fit with the pins and tang than is sometimes suggested for full tangs, I wanted load to go from blade to side slabs, not so much to the frame piece.
Frame Tang by
Last Scratch, on Flickr
The all the micarta handles here have rabbet hidden tangs with hidden pins, so no filler frame, but you need a router or mill and handle material thick enough to get your desired width. In the case of the middle knife, which is the best of the small ones, max handle width 0.733" (18.62mm), min 0.635". Thickness of scale stock was 10mm.
IMG_1006 by
Last Scratch, on Flickr
I am not a swedge fan. I would say either round the spine over so that it is super comfortable for finger placement, or leave it sharp for use as a scraper for a ferro-rod fire starter. Either way, if you want to tap with a baton it will be better than a swedge.
Best of luck :)
Chris
