When you spend your hard-earned money on a product, you want to take care of it and use it as intended. You respect the value of your purchase and consider it to be an investment, especially as a higher-priced item. The same rules apply for a Katana, which deserve the same respect as any other product. When you first receive your Katana, you’ll want to use it for every task and mimic what you see the movies. Depending on what you do, it can cause serious damage to the blade and handle.

With that said, there are 3 things that a newbie should never do with a Katana including:

Smack it Against a Tree: When you first receive the sword, you may want to start practicing and figure that a tree is typically soft wood so it cannot do any harm. WRONG. Never smack it against a tree or even try to chop the tree down with the sword. There are tools created specifically for this purpose called "axes." Katana's are constructed from impressive materials and many have been forged with incredible strength. However, they weren’t constructed to go up against the tree in your backyard. This type of misuse can break your sword leaving you disappointed and out of money. If you want to smack a weapon against a tree, buy an axe, you’ll be much happier with the results.

Use it for Home Defense: The term, "faster than a speeding bullet," isn’t applicable to the sword skills you THINK you’ve with the Katana. You cannot dodge bullets or deflect them with your blade, so don’t have false pretenses that you can do so. Sword Masters can do really amazing things after years of training but this is literally bringing a knife to a gun fight. There are many other more effective weapons that work against home invaders where you don’t need to be in sword range to deter them.

Wear it into Public: As cool as your new sword looks and feels, never wear it concealed under your clothes or out into a public place. It may seem like an excellent idea prior to leaving your home but it’s not. The news is regularly full of these types of incidences. Law enforcement officers won’t buy the fact that you had to leave your house and didn't want to part with the sword. Just leave the Katana at home so you won’t be parted from it forever and incur fines and potentially jail time.

It’s acceptable to be excited about your new blade and even practice with it. However, you must learn about sword maintenance, the best practicing methods, and never think you’re invincible as a result of this beautiful weapon.