This is my third sword, and I love it. If you are used to something as light as a jian, it may feel a bit heavy but it still moves nicely. I really like the leather grip, and the construction is very solid, with a peened tang (no screws holding the pommel on, tang is hammered to hold it on). The blade was perfect on the one I got, very nice damascus pattern, no scratches on the blade, no rust. I knew buying it from here was a gamble, but very happy with the sword I got. Currently I have a sharpened katana, sharpened jian, this sword, and an Albion Scottish arming sword being built. All are sharp, but this one is not razor sharp. It's sharp enough to do what it needs, but the edge isn't fine enough to cut paper (only my katana cuts paper cleanly so far). I would rate this sword as "sharp", close to "very sharp", but not razor...which is ok. I want it to keep an edge anyway, razor sharp isn't always a good thing. The sword tip is very sharp, it is good for thrusts, and it will cut harder objects such as cardboard smoothly with no effort.When cleaning the sword I didn't feel any roughness or burrs on the blade edge. Hilt is solid as you can ask for, and due to being peened, it will never loosen up. The leather wrap was perfect, I have no issues with the hilt at all. For my first Hanwei, this was a very good experience.My only minor gripe is the scabbard. It is not wood, made of metal and the inside has a fuzzy liner. Be careful of the angle when you sheathe the sword, as it doesn't like to go all they way to the hilt if you angle it wrong. That is very minor however, and the scabbard is functional. I can't really complain about a free scabbard, when a good one costs what I paid in total for this sword.I'm not a cutting expert, so I can't say much on how it is for long term cutting practice, and honestly the blade is so pretty I'm not sure I want to even use it for hard cutting - although this sword is obviously designed to handle a beating. If you were paying the full $800 or so for this sword, I may recommend going with known top quality like Albion, but for this price, Hanwei has done an outstanding job with this sword. That damascus pattern along the fuller really pops as well, you can always see it (damascus pattern is mostly in the fuller - which is very wide - and very hard to see on the grinded edge part).