Standard blade, 29", No Hi, extra option H19-phoenix Tsuba, C9 swirl fittings, B7 Brown synthetic Ito, White rayskin, and S10-Dark Blue Saya.

So after reading reviews and checking out all the hype about the sbg custom katana, I decided to get one too. It arrived last night, and I am both pleased and disappointed with it at the same time. So let's get the disappointing stuff out of the way first.

The Bad:
- The worst thing about it is the low quality and poor fit of the Saya. It feels cheaply made, and sometimes the sword catches on it when sheathing.
- The Ito is not as tightly wrapped as I would have liked, and feels rough under my hands. It's just not as good as the feel of my usual training Iaito.
- The polish on the blade is not as good as I'd like either. It looks rough, and doesn't have that mirror like quality, and the hamon is difficult to see.
- The alignment of the habaki is slightly off.
- The menuki the forge chose are generic dragons and don't really match the overall design.

The Good:
- The weight and feel of the sword is nice.
- The blade itself is everything it was touted to be, very nice shape, very sharp, very sturdy.
- The H19-phoenix Tsuba is very nice looking.
- Overall, everything is put together fairly well.
- The parts that I chose look the same as they do in the stock photos, so my design came out just how I wanted it.


End Result: It's a nice blade with not so nice everything else. I give it a final rating of 3 stars out of 5.