finished the stand with some new padding on the rungs.. all the blades are straight and sharp.. a ceramic honing rod on a lansky brought it to pretty much razor sharp..
overall, very happy.. and the wakizashi and tanto offer very nice weight/agility.. I am very happy I purchased this set.
Yao was very responsive throughout the process.
Links:
Stand
Padding
$22 3-tier Amazon stand
removed the felt pads first.
combination of linseed oil to help with sealing
regular minwax stain (yes I should have done the regular stain before the linseed.. included picture of it after just linseed)
and then gel stain to even it out / darken the light areas caused by doing it in the wrong order even after doing pre-stain, ha..
and Krylon clear coat over that.
3 sword set just cleared customs, so should be here in about 3 days.. pretty excited to see it all together with the red sayas on it.