I have bought these padded swords from tiger claw twice in the past.They lasted about a year of going at it on the weekends with me and my son in the yard whacking and blocking eachother, trying to beat eachother to the slash.He loves to play sword fights and we started when he was nine or ten with these swords. We got another set when he was eleven or twelve and I am back for my third. He doesn't go easy and usually wins.After a while of being left in the yard, or the amount of rough use, the swords slowly deteriorate, and we tell ourselves we need to get new ones. I have tried one or two other kinds of swords from amazon, but non feel as good to use and as safe to be bopped by as these ones.They may be a bit pricy, but hey, you got to pay to play for some things in life. The seller is responsive and actually sent out longer swords to me in exchange once when the ones I purchased were too short.