“Bought an old stock with tan ferrule and rosewood handle... must admit that I'm a bit disappointed. Hope the new stock is better. Blade came with slight but visible scratches (example in the pic) and below average out-of-the-box sharpness including a basically blunt tip. Nowwhere near the competition be it Kamo, Kobayashi or the Kurosakis, let alone Shibata (all of which are significantly cheaper).
Still giving three stars because I see the potential and I'm reasonably optimistic that the problem can be solved with the right sharpening stones and polishing paste. Handle and ferrule are really nice, I like the shape of the blade and the thin grind, edges are also very nicely rounded and polished. Overall great finish except for what looks and feels like a sharpening job gone wrong.
I'm keeping mine, but if you're not sure if you want to gamble 400 EUR for it, maybe buy a Shibata (handle less nice, blade way more awesome and costs 150 EUR less).”
