It felt very similar to the waki in balance. It was definitely rugged. The handle was somewhat rough as you'd expect with a wrapped handle. The wrapping was pretty stiff. With all the perturbations in the handle, I don't think it'd slip out of your hands. It looked like it was wrapped with an inner "colored" rope with an outer criss cross layer of a very stiff (maybe epoxied) material (maybe canvas). I never did ask what steel it was.