I liked this one just enough that I wanted to give some attention to details in their own photos. The contrast between the hand-rubbed blade, fittings and rather unique handle material should be viewed close-up.
There's a really nice hamon on this W2 I got from a god buddy of mine, but since I sort of classify this as a "Utility Hunter" I figured one might be more inclined to really put it to use with a hand-rubbed finish, rather than disturb a finely etched hamon. In person, the hamon is VERY! appealing in the hand-rubbed condition.
That handle is a piece of stabilized Sheoak "Rays", which from what I can tell, is an end-grain cut, which leaves the travel distance of the stabilizing polymers very short!
It is truly solid.
Guard is hand-rubbed 416.
No matter how many times I tried, I couldn't get my camera to focus where I wanted it to on the underneath view.
Oh, well, make believe!