Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!you my friend have come a loooooooooooooooong way from the time we collaborated on the first Autumn pen.
That is well thought out and executed congratulations.
yes, the clip is soldered on. Everything is sanded and polished and then I taped around the top to form a damn and poured inlace with the leaf glued inside. Once cured, I cut it with the scrollsaw to remove most of the excess and then used a belt sander to come back down to the angled metal. CA applied by hand to the resin/leaf and hand sanded then buffed. You know..it takes time.
Very impressive Jeff . Is the clip butt soldered on to the finial cap or did you recess it for strength ? I really like the inset finial tassies , they would make a great makers mark for all your future pens .