I agree with most others have said... And need to clarify something I said too. My meaning wasn't that imperfections are the only thing that "makes" the soul of the HI khukuri. The soul comes from the spirit and energy of the master who makes the blade. The "imperfections" or "mistakes" are what makes the difference between HI blades and machined knives that most other companies make. Machined items are all exactly the same and the machine has no soul to put in them. When a machined part has scratches or is not 100% symmetrical, you can hold a grudge but when an item is being done by human hand completely and by a master who incorporates a part of himself in the process, that is where the soul comes from. These can't all be the same and without some minor issues but as long as these do not compromise utility or overall aesthetics, I really don't care much. My thinking at least... This, of course, does not mean that if you get a khukuri with a handle that is cracked in the middle and is about to fall off is a blade with a soul because of faults in the manufacturing process or similar. I didn't write about that because I considered this to be normal and understood. Then again, as these knives, we too are all very, very different and while someone might never notice a dot, to someone else, it is the size of the mountain 