You still don't say on what you base your evaluation. For myself, I have only ever used three of Last Legends blades. In all three the handle dimensions seemed to be off in that they felt very strange in the hand. Two had poor handle wrapping, and the third was just adequate. One I had to take apart and repair the mekugi, and mekugi ana, as two of the three were pressing against each other instead of pressing the sword tang into the handle as they should have been resulting in an unsafe condition. One of the swords was so thin that it tended to bend if the wind blew on it.
I consider the Hanwei swords to be a much better value as long as you purchase from someone that knows swords and will inspect it well before sending it out. All in all I was singularly unimpressed with the Last Legend swords, so that's why I asked what you based your "awesome" evaluation on. Just for the record, I've also used several of the Cold Steel Japanese sword versions, and heartily disliked every one.
Bugei's swords are made by the Hanwei forge to their specifications. The biggest difference between Bugei and the standard Hanwei line is the fact that Bugei is very stringent in their quality control. Ted Tenold and Keith Larman, both of whom polish and mount swords professionally, personally clean and inspect every sword that comes in. This way, all of the normal quality problems found in the Hanwei swords is avoided. Of course, that's also why Bugei swords cost more than the standard Hanwei swords.
I really don't know which models they were. Two were several years ago, and one was last year. I make it a point to evaluate all blades that students wish to use for tameshigiri in the dojo. This way I not only ensure that all swords are of a minimum standard, I also get to evaluate the various manufacturers out there.
