I've been pretty vocal here calling TI out on their nonsense, so it's only fair for me to provide an update.
Order 283**. Placed on Mar 14, RCMP email Mar 29, then crickets. On Thursday the 11th, on someone's advice on here I went and checked the order status on the TI website and it said "Shipped". I had not received the shipping email or the tracking number. Called TI yesterday (the 15th), was told oh, it's out for delivery today, and provided the tracking number. Sure enough, I got the card and picked it up at the post office (the guy had actually brought it to my door, but wouldn't leave it despite me showing him my ID, only left a card, because apparently his terminal couldn't process it at the door. Weird, huh?). When I checked tracking it said label was created on Mar 29, but only processed by CP in Calgary on April 10. Mine was one of those "slant compensator and sling" orders that evidently got "delayed by 7-14 days" while TI was getting their stuff in order.
This was my first experience with TI, and my very first Type 81. I have never handled one until now. I won't be ordering from them again, and I won't be buying another Type 81. Might end up selling mine in the end. A little torn because this was meant to be a birthday present from my wife and she doesn't buy me guns very often.
The UF I received seems slightly misaligned, where if I know what I'm looking for I can see it, but I don't have the magnets to reliably measure deviation with a straight edge. I'm guessing it's somewhere in the 1-3mm range. When I look through the barrel I can see the rear cleaning hole but there is a noticeable optical curve. The front sight post tower looks slightly canted at an angle off vertical. Again, I don't have anything to actually measure it with.
The build quality is confusing. The barrel is super thick and heavy, and feels like it will survive anything that life might throw at it. The gas tube and the dust cover, on the other hand, are made out of the thinnest sheet metal I have ever seen. My canned tomatoes come in thicker tin cans than this. I'm afraid to look at them sideways, let alone let the rifle accidentally drop from standing, or snag on the inside of a carry case. Of particular concern is the little flimsy tab in top of the gas tube that fixes the gas regulator in the selected position. I can see it getting snagged on a carry case and bending off.
Finishing quality is atrocious. Like others have mentioned, the underside of the gas cover wood is not finished at all. To me that suggests that if you get it wet or use in humid conditions it will swell and eventually crack. The vent holes between top and bottom handguard expose the gas piston spring. To the point it's readily visible. The bottom front guard is completely flat. I don't know who this would be comfortable for. Maybe a sand bag. The SKS lower handguard is by far more comfortable. This one reminds me of holding two 2x4s stacked together, just obviously thinner than that.
The UF has a lot of play when folded, but not a ton when unfolded. That was as expected, not a huge thing, but probably a good idea to keep a piece for packing foam jammed in there if you want to protect your wood finish.
Then there is this the receiver/barrel finish. The receiver has some obvious areas of wear, where the receiver bare metal is visible. I applied some masking tape to the barrel in my attempts to roughly measure deviation, when I pulled the masking tape off it came off with a good amount of whatever is the black paint that was used. Now I see why some guys opted to hit the whole thing with steel wool and refinish it with cold blue.
All in all I'm pretty disappointed with my shopping experience and with the product that I received, because I was hoping that it will be of at least slightly better quality. Will it go bang? I'm sure that it will. Does it look cool? Yes it does. Will it hit the side of a barn inside 100 yards? Maybe, will have to see how it zeroes. Do I wish I bought myself something else with this money? Like a new bolt gun or a PC with a bunch of ammo to feed it? Absolutely.