Jason, Dave and Phil,<br /><br />You sharpen them using a very fine oil stone. That sword shown is the cheapest of the 'practical' series. Practical means its designed for cutting. Not like the junk on ebay you see (like Kill Bill swords). These are stainless steel and if you try to cut the blade will break and become very dangerous (imagine a piece of blade flying around like a helicopter).<br /><br />Also some cheap blades have a thin 1/4 inch bolt in the handle welded to the blade, not the true tang of the sword - again another projectile or missile!<br /><br />In dojo's a stainless steel blade is banned and not allowed.<br /><br />I will have to take pictures of my Bugei Samurai. Now THAT is a sword. Its really heavy and designed for very heavy cutting.<br /><br />You are right they are not toys and certainly no one should even play with one without proper training.<br /><br />I have lots of video's of accidents where people noto (re-sheath) the blade, miss the saya (scabbard) and it goes through there leg easily (and yes out the other side).<br /><br />Also on drawing, where if you incorrectly draw the blade (trying to raise or turn the blade before it its fully out of the saya), and off comes your fingers!<br /><br />If I hold up a sheet of A4 paper, I can slice strips of paper off by just pushing the blade onto the paper (not slicing just by only by pushing it against the paper).<br /><br />Last weekend I rolled up newspaper and did some cutting. I will set up again this weekend (weather permitting) and take some pictures.<br /><br />Cheers,