It's good for the $65 they ask for it. 1075 HC. Everything you heard about the hilt is correct. What I did was saw off that absolutely horrid "D-guard portion" with my dremel, and then went over all the molding flash as well. That smoothed it out quite a bit. to compensate,I wrapped the actual grip of the hilt with one layer of 550 cord. It's a lot nicer now imo. At the price, you can customize it without a lot of worry. I'd say go for it.