Cold Steel Warrior Series Katana Samurai Sword - Authentic Japanese Wakizashi with Ray Skin Handle, Black Lacquered Wood Scabbard & Brass Menuki - Perfect for Martial Arts Training, Cosplay & Collectors Display

To start off, the guard was protruding through the box when it arrived. Cold Steel's NEW owner is now too cheap to use a couple of styrofoam inserts to protect their products as none were in my box. The sword arrived with rolled over areas on blade and a very rough edge overall; I've bought better swords for much less money, and you can too. Oh, and the hardware from the guard forward is so poorly fitted as to be loose and the habaki was not even close to fitting within the sheath (saya). A total P.O.S. to be honest; very sad. Fortunately, all the issues were correctable, and I had the means to fix everything, so am keeping this 'sword kit' and making everything as it should have come from the factory; the outer box has a GSM LLC label on it, so this is straight from Cold Steel to Amazon. Seems the folks at GSM can't spell customer service, let alone know how to provide it, evidently no inspections are done even at this price point. The quality of many of their items are not what they were when Lynn T. was at the helm of the once great company. This review gives me no pleasure, in fact just the opposite; I feel sad for having to report what has happened.Oh, and update after getting everything put together properly from 04/15/2024: Not sure what they make the Saya out of, but its either balsa or paper mache; mine cracked with a tiny bump against the double padded floor. So I figured, it's time to think this one out. Using some gorilla tape and then 550 cord, I wrapped the saya and now have a rather sturdy sheath that, like the sword, is nothing which looks original, but will do the task I purchased it for. I will finish with this though, unless you have proper tools and are handy at fixing poorly finished items, look elsewhere for a Wakizashi. I love the heft, I love the tsuka length and the overall handiness, but the price is about double what this is really worth as it is today.