The original Nichols had rings attached to the quillon eyelets on the crossguard with an attached leather thong that served as a lanyard to keep the knife secure in the hand during combat. This knife is missing these.
The fit of the blade and guard is bad with big gaps where moisture and crud will enter. The guard looks like it was made for a knife with a ricasso (the unsharpened length of blade adjacent to the guard), but this knife has no ricasso, and there is a major gap that grows in size toward the cutting edge.
The original Nichols, in photos I have seen, had a silver soldered blade and perfect guard to blade connection, so that it was a perfect fit.
Having such a bad joint, aside from weakening the knife, will make the blade susceptible to rusting inside the guard and handle.
Also the the pommel cap was supposed to have an Indian-head nickel soldered in place, as shown in the photo, but the knife I was sent had none.
The retention strap snap was very difficult to close and open.
Fixing the gaping blade to guard connection, ensuring the knife has been inspected for completeness, and adding the thong would improve the knife considerably and should be considered by Windlass in future manufacturing quality improvement.