Starting my first project

Aaron Justice at Justice Armory has good ito for cheap. Swordnarmory, Yamato Budogu, Nihonzashi, and Tozandoshop all have good ito and fittings. Artsfeng has a lot of fittings as well.

Also while unwrapping the cheap leather ito i found that on the sides (not paneled by the black ray skin) there seems to be some kind of wax paper stuck to the leather and wood. its coming off easing but still is kind of weird to me.

Sweet i have heard good things about Ronin katana's
and i still dont understand the logic of wax paper under ito wrap lol

Yeah. When you wrap(I found this out the hard way) the ito doesn't want to stay in place. It wants to scoot and squirm around out of place. You can use paper with a diluted glue and water solution to apply strips of rice paper(or really any kind) to the sides of the tsuka to help keep it from doing so. Bear in mind though, a slightly weak solution lightly applied is best. The tsuka is sometimes found to be too round and the applied strips also help to make it a more grip-friendly and aesthetically pleasing shape. Finally, you should also look up how to make and use hishigami for the wrap. I didn't and the triangles formed by twisting the ito were shoddy, loose and uneven. a clamp of some sort is also good to secure the progress you've made. You don't want to accidentally drop it and have all of your hard work unravel.

That's up to you. If you like the shape of the tsuka and don't want to mess around with it, then just wrap it. You could also make some hishigami strips to use instead of wax paper. This is a strip of tough paper applied to the sides that has triangles cut into the edges to use as a guide to wrap. I'll try to find a picture to post for you.

hmmm those raise a few questions but they are helpful, im awaiting the ito wrap to arrive tomorrow at noon and im not sure when the menuki i ordered from artfeng will arrive. got an email saying shipped but im not sure what service the tracking number goes to=/

Double sided tape is not a bad idea... provided it stays put for years lol
if the stickyness already on the tsuka isnt enough ill have to look into it, but i have plenty of time to practice until my menuki arrive

As a first pass, that's not that bad at all. The same strip seems to be a bit thin, so you may want to blacken the wood on the sides of the rayskin so that there's not such a striking contrast. Also, most people who do this regularly have a set of makeshift tools that they use to manipulate the ito as they wrap. Something like a dental pick works. That way they can adjust the ito without having to unravel it. Remember to alternate the strands, right over left, left over right. This is traditional, but also it keeps your wrap from coming fully undone if the kashira becomes loose.

The hishigami will absolutely help. They are a bit of a pain, but they create something for the ito to conform and grasp on to. This will keep the diamonds even and in place. If you don't use them, you will end up having to re-wrap a lot sooner than with them, and the wrap will not look as good. Ha, you're right, marker would look bad. For more in-depth help, you may want to PM frankthebunny. He is an old hand at this and is always really helpful. He has a customization site, cottontailcustoms.com. You may want to go there and have a look.