...is the center of the plate a "false" piece of wood in order to cover up the hole?
...is it fragile?
It certainly can be a 'false' piece of wood. 'Unconnected' would be a better term, though. When stocking, simply cut a slice off of the rear of the blank for this. Inlet skeleton plate to the butt, discounting the raised portion. Inlet slice into the plate and epoxy it to the plate permanently or so it is removable. Trim backside and put saran wrap over butt and epoxy plate and slice to butt for perfect fit, with no epoxy showing on the plate edge. Remove, trim exterior of slice, finish, and checker. A very basic description, but I hope you get the idea.
The thru-hole is best if it is as small as possible, less chance for breakage, and one can install a removable stub plug on a large hole in an existing stock. The slice, attached to the plate is not perticularly fragile, in my experience. Doing this is not much more difficult than installing a skeleton plate the normal way, again, in my experience. Personally, I don't care for 'plugs' if there is any other way around them.
TRL
