Joo-Hwan Lee

My impressions:

I really like the "high" shinogi on this one.  It tapers gradually all the way from habaki to the kissaki's ko-shinogi and the flare and becomes most noticeable around the last 1/3 of the monouchi.  It looks and feels more "natural" than other production renditions of high shinogi.  Very cool, very suave.

Can't get over how nice the fittings are.  Just very very nice.  Tons nicer than any other production fittings I've seen.  I don't know how they did the patina but I think their competitors would give a lot to find out.  :)

The saya's slenderness initially caught me off guard, but then again, it's been a while since I've held a nihonto saya... and this one is definitely closer to traditional norms than production saya tend to be.  I don't know who is advising Citadel regarding these kinds of subtle details, but bravo to them.  It's no wonder Citadels have already been so popular in Europe.

The tsuka definitely is too fat for my hands... but then again, I do have smaller size hands.  :P

But...  honestly, this is basically a deal breaker for me.  Yeah, I know that I could just re-do the wrap after re-profiling the shape a bit... but then, I am afraid that it would take away too much from the full-wrap (I'm just assuming it's a full wrap; though I'm not 100% sure), and this one has such a lovely king node.  It would break my heart to "fix what ain't broken" you know?  Even if the same is in panels I just don't know it would be a good idea for me to slim it down... I was also quite impressed with the nakago's shaping and the yasuri-mei too.  The tsuka seems to be carved very well to suit the size and girth of the nakago.  I would hate to reduce the strength or integrity of the existing tsuka just to suit my hand.  It just seems wrong.  :)

The ihori mune was really pronounced-- more than any other I've ever seen and it was a bit strange at first.  But one positive benefit of the mune on this particular Citadel is that it really makes noto that much easier and keeps the blade very stable on its way in and out of the saya.  Eccentric, but very cool.  I do think that it adds to the overall weight and perhaps took the balance a bit further toward the kissaki.  Still, I don't think it will otherwise effect the performance since, thanks to the high shinogi, there should be virtually no drag resistance from it during cuts.

The fukura of the kissaki could stand to be a bit steeper as it currently interrupts the visual flow of the fumbari.  The effect is subtle enough... but enough that I noticed it.  Again, not a major flaw and they already did such a great job with everything else that I can "forgive" this minor hiccup.  :)

And I can't get over how incredibly smooth the polish is over the surface of the ji.  It's positively jaw-dropping.  I think it's the first time I've ever seen this kind of excellent polish on a mono-steel semi-production blade... and I've owned a hand-polished MAS/Butouken before.

The scary thing about this Citadel is that I think it would be a one monstrous cutter.  Seriously.  I didn't get that feeling even from the MAS L6, though I know that one can handle much more abuse than the Citadel (metallurgically speaking).  A lighter blade requires that much faster control and increased tip-speed to execute a cut properly.  While this Citadel... well, if your alignment is good, you could let it do a lot of the work and just sit back and watch the blade shine doing what it does best.  The balance actually reminds me of a dojomate's competition Hataya Kotetsu.

Anyway--  to make a long story short, I would absolutely love to keep this sword (I don't think I'll find anything better among production blades)... but the tsuka really bugs me (curse my smaller hands)... though I don't think most other people would mind at all.  Luckily, another friend has been drooling over this particular one (#9) for a while now and he's already agreed to take it if I don't keep it.  :)

I'm going to take it over to my friend's house (the one who owns the competiton Kotetsu) to also get his feedback (he knows more than I do about swords).  While I would otherwise keep this sword, two things might make it impractical for me... the tsuka size and its overall weight.  I broke my right wrist in TKD several years ago.  Now there is a metal pin keeping the scaphoid bone together.  It's all fine now, but I do find that my right wrist and forearm become much more easily fatigued since then...

Anyway, I just really want to thank you for opening my eyes to Citadel.  You were so right about them.  I'll definitely keep checking back on SoL to see if there's any others I might want to pick up in the future.  :)

Joo-Hwan