Much like my first impressions, the fittings are a touch underwhelming, but the blade is worth every penny. Overall this is a very practical sword and came to my door for about $350. This is by far the sharpest sword I've received without additional sharpening. If I have my way, I plan to replace the fuchi-kashira with iron and a solid iron tsuba to help pull the balance a touch closer to the handle. The balance of my O-katana is 8.5" above the tsuba making it very forward balanced and (by the way, I'm only 5'6"!) a bit unwieldy, but a beast of a cutter. Unless you're taking it to a junkyard to cut the doors clean off a car, you could probably chop down your Christmas tree with it and still cut slices of the holiday ham with it. The blade is an absolute tank! I'm not worried at all about breakage or damaging the blade. The bo-hi is uneven in a few places, but not noticable until you're cleaning/oiling the sword. I plan to show all my friends that I can slide my hand under the sori of this blade because that's why anyone thinks a katana is cool. The deep sori (curvature) of the blade is an absolute feature of beauty. I was pleasantly surprised to see my blade has no warps or bends whatsoever, contrary to what Cheness describes. The kissaki is the only place where the polish is a touch rough, but not as rough as my ÅŒdachi technique. The polish, despite what is described, is very nice and I can see the iris of my eyes in the blade. The cotton ito feels really nice in my hands and are very tight.
The fuchi-kashira, tsuba, and habaki are a bit scuffed up and the black paint is scratched off in a few places on my tsuba. The habaki is brass, the seppa are copper, the tsuba is painted black steel, I'm not sure what the fuchi-kashira material are (brass?), and cotton ito. Like many others mention, the overall fittings leave something to be desired, but the blade itself is rather impressive. Great practice for mounting, but 5 star blade
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