Out of the box, it’s borderline unusable. The nylon at the kashira (pommel) end has very sharp corners that cut into the hand on the first swing. Had to file the sharp edges down to make it usable.
The tsuba is sharp at the corners of all of the cutouts, and feels like a cheese grater against your knuckles if you choke up on the blade at all.
The blade itself is difficult to keep the edge aligned while swinging. Could be because of the flat leading edge, or could be something in the exact shape of the handle. Tried swinging the blade with the beveled “spine” of the blade leading, and it was much easier to keep aligned…but that’s not how these swords are used. Perhaps the leading edge could be filed more round to cut through the air.
All of these problems can be fixed by the end user…but that’s not the point.
For reference, I am a kendo player of 6 years, and have a reasonable level of experience with katana, and katana shaped swords.