Cold Steel Shamshir Questions

QUESTION: Hello, I plan on purchasing a Cold Steel Shamshir this summer for my birthday (a gift to myself :D) and I just wanted to clarify a few things.

From this site and others, I have gathered that since the sheath for the shamshir is leather, I shouldn't really keep it in the sheath for long. Is this true?

The sword can obviously handle light weight cutting such as water bottles, so I would assume a good drying and oiling would be in order after such activity, correct?

Finally, are there any little comments or notes you have about the shamshir that you can think of that were not in the review? Not implying you missed anything ;) just curious.

Thanks for taking the time to answer this, I love the site.

ANSWER: From memory (as I no longer have this particular piece in my collection) the scabbard was a wooden core (99.5% sure) - so it's no problem to store it in as long as the blade itself is oiled.

Overall, I think I covered all the bases on that one - definitely a nice solid cutter that one. The only thing I can think of that I may have missed is the handle is a little smooth, so it feels like you can lose your grip, but the pommel knob does a good job of allowing you to keep good leverage.

- Paul