Thanks guys, and while this is a presentation piece it is a sword and to fulfill it's purpose in life (for me at least) it had to be designed as a useful weapon. While it is rather large even for my hands and strength it sliced right through about a 1 1/2 inch sapling with no problem. I was actually most scared of the ivory cracking but it held up - had it cracked the maker and I would have had to have further negotiations
Course I did manage to catch it right on the harmonic point near the belly swell.
I'm thinking I probably won't test it again unless it's in self defense
