First of all I just want to say the service at Swords of the East AWESOME! I live in Canada an 10 days to Christmas I wanted to get my friend a Katana, so I placed my order. When I noticed there was no expected delivery time for Canadian shipping I called SotE and emailed them right away to see how long it would take and if it wasn't going to reach me in time I wanted to negotiate a faster shipping plan. As expected my order probably wouldn't get to me in time, so for a larger shipping fee they would send it to me via UPS Expedited shipping. I really didn't care that I had to pay more to get it in time, just as long as I got it by Xmas I would be happy. Although I would have liked to have been given the option for faster shipping right through their website rather then having to negotiate it, I'm just happy that they got back to me within the same day, and were open to the idea of an alternative shipping method, and I received my order two days later. (Sorry for not using Katana talk, I don't know much about them so bare with me) For the Sword itself, it's fairly decent for the price. It has a really nice weight in your hands (I could just be weak though). The blade is beautiful with no scratches or nicks in the one I received. The handle is well put together as well and the leather feels good to hold. However the brass fittings between the blade and the guard there was an excessive amount of glue dried all over it and some of it had oozed onto the handle guard... so I had to clean that up with glue remover before I wrapped it. Also the inside of the entire package was extremely dusty (kinda have to expect that though when it's imported from asia) and the inside of the Sheath had styrofoam dust all along the inside which would leave itself all over the blade each time you put the sword in and took it out, and is extremely hard to get rid of it all... In the end my friend is a HUGE Tarantino Fan and this sword does the movie justice.