this is the fifth bokken I have made in the last 12 years.
I have also made two wood scabbards.
Pre-planning and careful sequencing of operations is key.
This is the most complex, and the most precision-driven, as it is to be a doppelganger of a specific blade rather than a simple training tool.
All have come out well, even the very first one.
Add the results of the bow project, and I am inclined to suspect I may simply have a knack for this sort of thing.
Updates:
shaping the leading edge into a "bullet" radius:
step#1 - guidelines for first planing: 
step#2 - guidelines for second planing: 
Step#3 - smoothing planed angles into a filed radius: 
detail of finished radius: 
pic of guard blank (1/4" hotrolled steel, cut with plasma cutter) and sheet brass for miscellaneous furniture:
The guard blank is VERY heavy.
I shall cut out the oval for the hilt after I finish the bokken.
I shall have to pierce it and remove a fair amount of meat with files, in order to approximate the original's weight.
However, that shall wait until I shape the spine.
I shall be making a template for that, as it is to come to a clean and centered edge.
The leading edge is a simple eyeball-radius, and thus needed no such guide.
Fabricating the guide will be this evening's project.