The blade is made of folded steel, hand-forged.The handle and scabbard are made of ebony, the wood color and veins are natural. The fittings are made of brass and hand-carved. The fittings are four holy animals, they're the combination of Chines fairy tales and astronomy. Four holy animals are mythological creatures in the Chinese constellations. They are the Azure Dragon(Qing Long) of the East, the Vermilion Bird(Zhu Que) of the South, the White Tiger(Bai Hu) of the West, and the Black Turtle(Xuan Wu) of the North. In ancient China, the asterism in the east looked like a dragon, it looked like a bird in the south, it looked like a tiger in the west, it looked like a combination of a snake and a turble in the north. As the earth revolves around the sun, the seaon changes and the asterism changes, so each holy anmial represents a direction and a season.