I'm new to owning katanas so really don't have much in my experience to compare this katana to. Having said that, I'm really happy with the custom katana that I purchased from ShadowDancer. I wanted a katana with a water theme (just 'cuz), and though katanas with that theme are fairly common (I've seen many online from different companies) there were always elements to them that rubbed me the wrong way. So going the custom route allowed me to get pretty much exactly what I wanted. I went with S5 steel because, being relatively new, I wanted something that was durable. I will say that with the S5 steel I chose to have an etched hamon ('cuz generally hamon look cool), but after I made the purchase I kinda regretted it as I know etched hamon generally don't look all that good. But how ShadowDancer handled the etched hamon I think looks fantastic. Much better than I thought it could be. Really happy with the results of their work. Again, can't compare it to other katanas out there, but for me, this it very much the sword I wanted. Will note, pics I uploaded for this review are the ones ShadowDancer took before they sent the katana to me, not ones I took. They just took much better pictures of the katana than I could. But that's my katana and I'm very happy with it.