Dragon King Winter Sun Katana Reivew

Hello there, sword friends. Today I am going to be reviewing a Dragon King Winter Sun Katana. A few quick things before I go into the rest. One, I did purchase this sword. It's owned by me. I bought it with my own monies, but I did purchase it second hand, and therefore it may not be representative of what you would expect to get from Dragon King if you bought one new. The other thing I should note is that I'm not being asked to do this review. It's just my own thoughts. I'm not an expert on martial arts, and nobody is paying me to do it. It's not a review sample. I'm not affiliated with Dragon King or CAS Siberia, their distributor in the U.S., in any way other than as a customer and as an enthusiast. For those of you that are not super familiar with who Dragon King is, I can't say that I necessarily am either. My first exposure to them was with the Spring Sakura Katana. I did a review on that some time ago. Supposedly they're made in Dalian, China, a similar place to Hanwei, which is a little different since most of the katanas made in China seem to be made out of Longquan or Longquan. I don't know how exactly the name is pronounced. But anyway, it's made outside the general region that many of its counterparts are produced. Hanwei was usually the outlier there, or maybe it's not. I don't know exactly what the geographic distribution of katana production is in China. Nevertheless, it seems like many of them are made in Longquan or Longquan. The fittings tend to be a little bit better than the average Joe, and actually tend to be a little bit unique with their own styling and theme, which I think is pretty neat. They've got some pretty cool offerings, and yeah, they've tended to hold up. And I think the experience I've had with the Spring Sakura and now the Winter Sun is that they seem to have a shaping that isn't as overbuilt as many of their counterparts are in the mass production market. But I'll get on to that. I may be a little off in my thinking, history, and dates, but from some of what I've heard and pieced together, it seems like Dragon King, as well as Citadel and a few of the other products that CAS Iberia has been importing as of late, is a response to the fire that they had at Hanwei a number of years ago, wherein CAS Hanwei used to distribute pretty much exclusively Hanwei swords, at least that was my understanding. And after the fire, it left a company with not necessarily a whole lot to distribute, and as such, they seem to have diversified what they offer so that their eggs aren't all in one basket. Dragon King is one of the newer katana manufacturers that has come out of that, and it's one that I didn't hear of before. Citadel was an example of a company that existed beforehand, and it's just that their wares were a little harder and more obscure to get. Dragon King wasn't something I heard of before CAS Iberia started distributing them, and I think really the market's better for it. It's not necessarily a wildly different take or offering compared to what Hanwei puts out or what many other manufacturers do, but it's got its own unique flavor. It's not just a rebadging of the same blob of fittings and saiyas and all of the other parts that I tend to see out of many of the mass production outlets on eBay and things like that. It's a little bit more unique, and there's some artistry and whatnot to it, so I think the market is better for it. So not that I'd hope that any factory burns down, but it seems like this particular one triggered some responses that gave a few more offerings to customers than were there before. The other thing I want to note before I get into the meat of the review is that this sword retails for $449 as a suggested retail price on the CAS Iberia website, and it's $399 on Cult of Athena, and probably a little bit less depending on where you look. The point is, though, that most of my critiquing is going to be put into the frame of reference that this is a, you know, sub-$500 sword, and that you're able to get for about 400 bucks. So I'm not necessarily expecting the world, but there are some things that I am expecting. So I'll try to just note that I'm going to be picky and anal about it, but at the same time, it is tempered by the fact that this isn't $2,000, $1,000, or even $500. It's a $400 sword in terms of what you're able to go and buy right now, at least as of February 2018. Let's get into the meat of the review now. First, I'm going to start with the Kasra, and the thing that I want to note is that this is just a very simple, kind of elegant design for what you're getting charged. Now, there's no engraving, there's no fine cast quality, but it does have more than a simple stamped-out shape. It has a couple different curves and bends and a little bit of elegance to it. It has a pretty nice patina on it that hasn't worn away while I've been using it. The transitions between the Kasra and the Ito actually look pretty good, and there's nothing that bites into my hands or that I feel on my fingers if I'm using the sword and kind of holding down near the Kasra. It also has these shiradome. I'm probably saying that wrong, as I have done for years, but they're silver and they match thematically with the other metal bits on the sword, and they are separate pieces. They don't kind of bite into my hand, and they're actually pretty well made. Overall, I'm actually really pleased with how the Kasra fits into the blade at this price point. Moving on to the ska, or the suka, or the handle. In a nutshell, the Ito is reasonably tight. I would also note that the Ito doesn't show signs of glue or staining like I saw on the spring sakura katanas. I had two of those, and both of them had kind of glue on the end knot in the same place. I don't see that on this one. The Ito does look kind of thin and small, which I don't exactly know what to make of, but it's reasonably tight or serviceable. Now, that means it could be tighter. I can still move it around slightly with my fingers, but at the same time, I would certainly call it serviceable. It doesn't appear that it's going to come any looser or fall apart or anything like that. There are some katanas that are known to come with Ito so loose that in the first hours of use, it may come so loose that the Kasra comes undone or it starts coming unwound, and that certainly isn't the case here. It doesn't give me that impression. Now, again, I'm not expecting perfection, but it is worth noting that the diamonds are uneven and a little on the small side. The samegawa is panels, and there's no really large nodules here. They're all pretty small, and they're relatively inexpensive cheap panels or cheap parts of the samegawa, though I suppose they are at least real panels and real samegawa. The shaping of this guy is relatively simple. It doesn't have a pronounced kind of hourglass shape or anything, but it is an axe handle, and it fits pretty well into my large sausage fingers. I actually find it to be a reasonably comfortable handle to use. The manuki are snowflakes, and they seem to have a more contemporary kind of theme to them in that they seem modern. They don't seem artistically, historically Japanese or influenced by that. They look like kind of modern snowflakes. Now, maybe that's my limited exposure, and I haven't seen it, and it's because I don't know enough to recognize its place in history, but it seems like a very kind of modern approach to themes, and I don't necessarily think that's bad though. If you're looking for something more historically influenced, this may be a factor for you, and hell, you may not listen to me because maybe it's historic after all, but it seems modern to me, though I will admit I actually like the winter theme. I live in a place where it's winter pretty much 10 months out of the year, so having a snowflake theme winter holds a special place in my heart given that I very rarely come out of winter, but I do actually like the look. The other thing I suppose worth noting is that I took photos of the ska after actually testing it and using it, and the ska isn't cracked. Now, again, it's secondhand, and I used the sword to do some mild cutting, and it's not cracked at all, which is actually a really good thing considering that it seems to be a crapshoot pretty often if the brand new sword you get has a cracked ska on it, and so far Dragon King seems to do a pretty good job of not sending out cracked handles, which is a good thing, definitely. I suppose it's actually also worth noting that the ska wasn't terribly difficult to take off. A lot of times these swords get really stuck on, and you just have to beat the piss out of them to get the handle off, and that wasn't the case here. I would say that the makoogi are a little lackluster. They could be better, and they seem to have really been jammed in there, and honestly, when I started taking them out, the little nail set that I used to take out makoogi dug in, and I'm going to probably have to replace the makoogi at some point in the very near future, because I think if I take them out one more time, they're pretty much going to be destroyed. So note, I mean, you can, it seems like they're made out of chopsticks, so it doesn't seem like they're fire-hardened bamboo or very strong, and that's not really that big a deal, honestly, but it could be a factor for some people to know. I'm really actually pleased that it wasn't so difficult to take off the handle, though. Very often I really have to struggle getting the thing off, and it's nice that it came off reasonably easy. There was still a bit of struggle, still some pushing, but I like that it came off, because if you're actually using the sword, you're cutting with it, your sword gets wet, you can actually take it apart to clean it and not worry about a big giant pile of rust underneath there. It also went back together with not exactly the most ease. I did have to bang it on the table a little bit harder than I like to get the handle set back on, but when it did go back together, everything was tight and fit well again. It was really the suba and sepa that are fit so tight that it required a little bit of manhandling to resettle. Moving on to the fuchi, it matches the kashira. I like the actual fitting component itself. It's simple and elegant, and just in general, I like the simple fittings. I really like, honestly, that they didn't try to do something overly embellished and then muck it up because they couldn't put the effort, because of cost purposes, into reasons into it. A lot of times people try to bite off more than they can chew, and they end up delivering this kind of muddy, ugly looking thing, and this is simple and sweet and good, and for the money, it does what it's supposed to do. Anyway, to me, I like the theme. The gripe about the fuchi is really that the transitions are not great. They're functional, and the edges are rounded enough where it doesn't feel like it bites into my fingers, but I can definitely feel that there is a little section that my fingers kind of touch on, and it's not supposed to be. The ito is supposed to line up perfectly around. Am I expecting perfection? No, but it's certainly nice to get, and sometimes in other blades in this price category, I've seen from Skydrill, for example, they do a better job of getting these transitions. Now, this is really more of a picky point for somebody that's going to be doing a lot of ito with it, or somebody that knows their fingers are going to be rubbing on that spot, or somebody that's really anal about that type of thing. Is it going to be a big deal to most people? No. I swung it around, and it worked just fine, and I can't say I really noticed it while I was using it, mostly because it's not sharp and it didn't hurt me, but it is certainly a point that is worth noting to people that are planning on using this for, say, iaido or practicing a lot with it, and it tends to become more irritating if that's what you're doing. At least that's where I tend to notice little things is when I'm doing kata or something like that repetitively. I start to notice little things in the tool that I'm using, and that's... Anyway, there you go. It's irritating. Now we're going to move on to the suba area. Now, the first thing I actually want to talk about isn't the suba, but it's actually the sepa. Those are the little washers that go on either side of the suba, or the cross guard-looking thing. So the thing to note about them is that they're silver in color, and they're actually not just plated on one side. The color maintains all the way around. The point I want to make, though, is that a lot of manufacturers use the same brass or copper sepa, or the same thing with a silver plating on it, and it has the same little dental pattern around the edge, and it's the same all the time, and I'm guessing there's one company or something that makes them, and they buy them by the billions, and they save a lot of money just with these simple washers. In this case, they're just a little different. They have some scalloping around the edge, or some different kind of pattern around the edge, and it's a minor little thing, very small little detail, but at the same time, it's noticed. It's not the same. I'm not looking at it as like every other sword, and it's something I picked up on immediately after I've looked at the same hibaki and the same sepa on hundreds and hundreds of swords. To see something just a little different, it helps it stand out considerably, at least in my mind, and it's little details like that that I definitely appreciate. Also, they are the same silver pattern, or the same type of color and silver as the rest of the fittings, the shitadome, the little kind of washers that go in the fuchi as well as in the kurikata, which you'll see later, along with the hibaki. They all kind of match in the same color scheme, which I also like because you're not using one type of silver and then another type of silver and then something else that just throws your eye off in terms of coloring. So anyway, I like the sepa. That's what I'm getting at. As for the suba itself, the first thing I'll note is that the casting quality is actually quite good, and so I like that there appears to be a raised rim which is cast in. I like the actual contemporary side that has this kind of simple snowflake looking thing that matches thematically with the manuki. I think it ties things together really well. On the opposite side, though, there's this much more Japanese-influenced kind of snow monkey looking thing with kind of snowflakes going on, and honestly, the monkey throws it off a little bit to me. Now, maybe there's some historic or artistic reference that I'm missing, but given that the rest seems very contemporary to me, the monkeys in the snow throw it off. I would have kind of liked to see the monkeys not there and just the snowflakes blowing in the wind or something with a sun in it because I don't really see that anywhere. It's the winter sun and I see snow, which is what... Anyway, the point is, thematically, I'm not super thrilled with one side of the suba. The other side I actually like and I think fits pretty well, but the casting quality is very good. It's also really set on there and fits pretty well. I took it off and put it back on and it fit on the sword quite tight, and that's overall overall good. Also, I suppose worth noting, the raised rim, the casting, there's nothing that's sharp or bites into my hands if I end up pushing my fingers against the suba. That's not necessarily something that you're supposed to be doing, but in some cases, swords have kind of sharp edges or something that pokes out, or with a raised rim around it that was cast, there's something sharp or something that would chew your fingers up if they got anywhere close, and that's not the case here. It actually, from a practitioner's standpoint, is perfectly functional and fine and didn't hurt me. Now we can talk about the hibaki. The hibaki is the same silver color and it's a very simple pattern. It looks like just about every other hibaki. I would have honestly liked to see some other kind of patterning or something on here, though I understand for cost reasons it may be prohibitive. I like that it's a silver color and, you know, it matches the rest of the sword, and I'm glad they went through the process of putting in the silver color on these pieces. I think it sets things off just enough. The hibaki was also worth noting that it was very, very tight on the blade itself, and so even after I disassembled the sword, it was a little bit of an ordeal to pull the hibaki off. I did end up getting it off, but it was something of a challenge. I had to very gently use my nail set in the appropriate way to kind of get it to initially move a little bit, which may be more intensive than some people want to entail. The handle came off well, the suba came off a little frustratingly, and the hibaki was just really on there. Anyway, it's tight, it fits well, it does the job, and it's silver. I like the hibaki. The flip side is how that ties into the saya, and on the koiguchi area, it doesn't really hold the saya very tight. Now, I think it kind of binds in there a little bit, but it's just not quite where it needs to be. I can turn it upside down and it doesn't fall out immediately, but the slightest movement really sends the sword kind of falling out of the saya. So a shim is going to solve that pretty quick, but nevertheless, it doesn't hold in there super well. I suppose that brings me to the saya. The first thing that I notice is this black ishime paint, and I like the texturing on the on the ishime. It's not overly bold or subtle. It's a nice texture for ishime, and I like that it doesn't show my fingerprints and stuff just immediately. It's a preference thing between gloss and ishime finishes, but I like this aspect of it. In terms of the thematic snow, it kind of, I think, blends into the snow looking type of thing. A gloss would be more icy. Anyway, whatever, I'm overthinking it. The point is I like the ishime finish. The downside that I would say to the ishime finish is that it seems very thin. There was a little nick in the one that I have, and I can kind of see how thick the paint is there, and it seems overall quite a thin application of ishime, and that gives me the impression that if your saya gets banged around a lot, which most do, it's not going to hold up terribly well, would at least be my speculation. There are some horn fittings as well. There's the koiguchi kurigata and kojiri. I'm going to talk first about the kurigata. That's the little piece that holds the segeyo. It has a silver shiradome in it. The segeyo is also really small and seems kind of dinky. It's probably something that you may want to replace, or maybe it's sufficient, but it doesn't have a, it's obviously not all that fantastic. At least it's not in my opinion. The kojiri also at the end is made of a horn piece, and I like the transitions. There's nothing really bad about it, but the edges are actually pretty sharp, and if you're doing any kind of kata on the ground where your saya or the kojiri is going to bang into the floor, this seems like something that's going to chip or damage in pretty short order to me. Those sharper edges around the base of things, if you're doing any kind of seated kata, don't tend to hold up overly well. The koiguchi is also horn, and it seems a bit fragile. As I noted earlier, it doesn't necessarily hold on to things super well, but the overall, it just has, I don't know, it seems on the smaller side, which is actually a kind of a pro and a con. On one side, the koiguchi area doesn't seem overbuilt or substantial, and the saya overall actually has a very thin kind of smaller appearance. A lot of times sayas tend to be overbuilt and very thick. This helps them survive the transportation across the pond and not be broken in half, but the the main point is that this seems to have a little bit more slender, pleasant feel in my hand, but it also seems more fragile and like something that that could break or need maintenance a little more quickly. Now we can talk about the pointy pointy stabby part, the part that people are actually interested in hearing about. The steel that's used is 5160, and I don't usually harp on steel because I don't find it the most consequential thing to note, but the the thing to note about this one is it's a through-hardened 5160 blade, which means in theory that it's going to be pretty forgiving in terms of bending or twisting if you're using, you know, if you're a new student cutting tatami or having fun with water bottles or you're attempting, say, stupid non-traditional targets like I might. The point is that it's 5160 and it doesn't show the same metallurgical effects that you would perhaps see in a differentially hardened blade. There's no folding pattern on it because it's not folded steel. There's no hamon or kind of wavy line that runs across the surface of the blade because it's not differentially hardened. It's through-hardened and that takes away some of the the aesthetic appeal, at least in my mind, though that said, if you're going to use the sword, which is, you know, certainly its intended purpose, if you get scratches on it or something like that, it doesn't really detract from the polish and you're not immediately losing some of the aesthetic appeal of the blade on the, you know, the first time you actually use it, which is, you know, kind of a nice thing to just get out of the way. The polish on it is really lackluster, you know, the spine is kind of polished to a mere level but the rest of the blade looks like a 600 or 800 grit kind of polish or maybe even less than that. That said, you can clean it up a little bit yourself. You don't have to be a master of the polishing to actually clean it up and sharpening it doesn't really detract from the overall appearance if you need to. The thing is that the, you know, if you're looking for something that has a lot of artistic sense in the blade, some metallurgical effects to appreciate from an artistic type level, you're not necessarily going to get them here. That's not the intention of the blade, though I would say that the fittings have an artistic degree to them which I really like and the blade doesn't. It's very much a tool in its appearance and that may be a factor for some people that want to have a jamón or something to look at or have that more traditional type of general appearance. Moving on from just the general appearance of things, I can talk about the shaping of the blade and the shaping is actually something I really really like in this sword and I think one of its most endearing features. A lot of times with swords sub $500 you can get something that's made for iaido or, you know, just moving around and handling maybe like water bottle cutting that you wouldn't want to use on harder targets and the stuff you would want to use on harder targets you have something that is, you know, really overbuilt, really clunky, kind of cumbersome to handle. It doesn't feel as lively in your hand as you would hope or just kind of bleh. Or maybe you get something that's dedicated to Tami and it's a great lawnmower but if you need to do anything else with it it doesn't really, you know, it misses the mark. And this is somewhere in the middle like a genuine kind of weapon feeling sword where it's very thick and has an elegant looking shape to it. It's not overly wide just to cut to Tami. It's not small just for iaido. It's not overbuilt and dead feeling in your hand and the general shaping of I think stands out as better than what many of the other sub $500 swords of this size tend to do. Now it's not perfect but I would say that it's at least different and that's something that I've heard martial arts actually, martial artists ask for is that the swords are either too small or too big, you know, it's the story of Goldilocks sometimes. So it's nice to see that there's another option in this case. In terms of sharpness this is post-use. It's actually, you know, pretty sharp right out of the box. It does the job. I was actually quite impressed with the level of sharpness that I got straight away. Now it can always be sharper but at the same time I think this is perfectly sufficient for what you would expect coming out of the box. The only real gripes that I have about the sword in terms of its shaping and whatnot is the polish. It's really dull and it has some spots on it, some of which are secondhand and I can't really gripe about, but it likely has some saia rub and I also noticed that it has a yakote on it and I wonder why, given that, I mean, it's I guess nice that they did it but it takes extra time and they're not really focusing on the polish anyway. So maybe this is easier or time consuming but it does make me wonder how much you pay to have this differential line put in and if it's actually worth, if the juice is worth the squeeze. Anyway, the blade overall I'm really quite impressed with. The other component to the blade is the tang, the nikago, or the part that's underneath the handle. This one actually came out reasonably easy so I can show it to you. The things that I noticed is that there's not a ton of attention put on the nikago here. The file markings are there but I would say they're not necessarily put there in a way that's supposed to be intentionally pleasing or an additional component to the cost of the the blade itself. There's a big bulge underneath the hibaki and I guess I like that they're taking the time to file down the nikago so that it fits well and I like that the munmachi and hamanchi look like they're about parallel as opposed to offset, though there's not really a lot of attention or much to appreciate here on the nikago. It does actually have a reasonably nice signature on it. It's not terribly deep but it looks actually pretty nice. It's just that the rest of it, kind of the file markings that you might expect to see or the shaping, it leaves a little bit to be desired. Though admittedly I'm not expecting a lot. This is, again, a $400-ish sword. $440 if you, $50 if you want to pay more money to C.I. Siberia directly but it's called a patina, it's 400 bucks and at $400 I don't expect perfection though its counterparts at Hanwei tend to put a little bit more emphasis on the nikago and I appreciate that because it is an element that many people will never disassemble the sword. They're never going to see, though if you put a lot of effort into the parts that people don't see it gives me a sense of trust that for the other parts I'm not seeing, like the the hardening of the blade, that that is done well and that people are paying attention to all the stuff that I don't get to see in a sword. That's kind of where emphasis in the nikago in the production realm of things tells me, gives me good vibes, right? If you're going to put a lot of effort into the and energy into the parts that I don't see on the sword or that people are likely never able to see then that likely follows through the entire production process and it gives me a sense of confidence which may be unjust but nevertheless I do like to see more effort put into the nikago though from a general business sense again a lot of people are never going to disassemble the sword when they buy it so why spend money on it? I kind of get both both sides of it though I personally do look at it so I like to see pretty ones. Now before I get into the handling and dynamics and cutting and all that kind of stuff I want to talk about what was advertised in terms of measurements versus what was received. Now do bear in mind this is second hand and all of that stuff so maybe this is just a weird anomaly but what I'm noting is that the advertised specs on CAS Iberia's website are 29 and a quarter inches of blade length. This is 30 and a half. Now blade length is measured from the tip to this weird little notch back here where the blade meets the habaki. This is the moon notch and it's supposed to be measured to here. Some people measure from the tip to the cross guard area and that makes some logical sense and when you're that you know which way people are measuring it but it's supposed to be measured to this little notch back here. That's I guess maybe unique to Japanese swords but nevertheless that's where the measurement's supposed to be. The handle is supposed to be 12 and a quarter inches and it's 13 inches another three quarter inches and that's a lot of variation. Now the website does not necessarily indicate how thick the blade is supposed to be at the at the width here or width here. It doesn't indicate that or tell me the specs at the kasaki or anything like that. The only other measurement that it really gives me is that it's supposed to be three pounds. Now this blade came in at two pounds 13 ounces which is a three ounce difference compared to where it's supposed to be. Now for those of you that aren't super familiar with what three ounces of steel weighs here is a visual representation. This is the tip of a Ronin katana European sword and this piece of steel measures in at about three ounces which means that this sword is has a handle that's three quarters of an inch longer and a blade that's an inch and a quarter longer yet it doesn't have this much steel in it somewhere just as a visual representation but this is three ounces of steel. This is what what is somehow shimmed off or not in there which leads me to believe that there is a very substantial amount of variation in terms of how thick how wide how the blade is ground out. Otherwise none of that makes any sense. Now I did look and I don't see that there are longer variations of the sword available on CAS Iberia's website. Sometimes they just have stuff where you can get a longer handle or a longer blade or something like that and I don't see that so what I'm led to believe or what I'm left with is that I have a handle that's three quarters of an inch longer blade that's an inch and a quarter longer yet is three ounces lighter which makes me think that what you order may not always be what you get which is a big deal to some people. Now if you're just buying the sword because you like the winter theme because it's a good deal and you like it because of some other factor than measurements then it's not really a big deal to you but if you're a martial arts practitioner and your sensei says you need a sword of this size go get one and you buy it thinking that this is the case this is a variation that could make it unusable to you or if you just have refined taste and you know what you want and you order a 29 and a quarter inch blade and get 30 and a half inch with a longer handle again that's going to be a big disappointment. If I were ordering it assuming it's 29 and a quarter inches and it ended up being something different or I mean if it were an inch and a half smaller or an inch and a quarter smaller that would be a big deal to me. I would not want the sword anymore. Now to me this is a kind of a pleasant thing there are not very many 30 and a half inch blades so the fact that it is that long is actually a pleasant surprise to me and maybe it will be to you as well but it does lead me to believe that there are smaller blades out there at 29 and a quarter inches long with that weigh three pounds and in that case it's you know I don't know anyway I think if they made more of them like this shape that would be good but all of this measuring leads me to believe that there are a substantial variation and maybe the one that I have isn't really representative at all of what is out there. Hopefully they're more accurate than they're alluding to because because that could be a pretty a pretty big deal breaker to some folks out there. Now in terms of dynamics I went outside to swing it around and I thought why not do it in the same theme of the sword which is a monkey in the snow I guess. It's called the winter sun though I don't really see the sun on it anywhere and neither was it out while I was using it. Though swinging it around in the cold there were some things that really popped out. One, it's actually pretty comfortable to use. Dynamically speaking this is a heavier sword. It's on the middle high end at least in my view of swords. Two pounds thirteen ounces is not light. It's certainly not on the heaviest side. Heavier would be you know say close closer to four pounds but it's certainly on the medium heavy side is what it seems to be in the production realm of things which given that it's much longer than your average production sword that's somewhat impressive I guess that it still maintains that medium to medium high weight threshold but in terms of balance and how it feels in my hand it's actually pretty easy to control. It's not super easy to just get moving but I did find it easy to control the tip and stop which made me feel like I had some control in the swing that I was doing. It's not cumbersome to do kata with at all. I found it to be very comfortable. This sword is more my size so it's certainly a comfortable blade for me. The things I guess I noticed is that it's despite its size and what I see on the Weapon Dynamics computer it didn't feel particularly easy to start moving to kind of whip around and really get momentum going initially but it did feel comfortable to stop and I don't know if that's an effect of the larger handle or exactly what but I thought that was kind of an odd mix that it didn't feel terribly easy to start moving but felt more easy to stop. I don't exactly know why or if the data supports that but it was nevertheless easy enough and dynamically moving around it seemed perfectly comfortable. The main thing I would say in terms of moving it is that it's comfortable and also that if I were doing kata with it if I'm practicing with it if I were doing a lot of iaido or something like that it doesn't seem overly cumbersome to use for that purpose which I think makes it one of the heaviest swords that I would say is comfortable to use for you know repetitive moving around and maybe it's just how it balances in the hand but for me I would say that it certainly doesn't feel bad at all to to use for that intended use if that makes any sense. Anyway if we move on to the cutting the cutting side of things the first thing that I did was cut pool noodles. Now pool noodles are deceptively difficult to cut if you don't have a sharp sword or if your edge alignment is off and those two things aren't happening at the same time then your pool noodle just kind of waves around in front of you and mocks your ability and the tool you're using. The pool noodles are actually easy to cut. This is one of the easiest to cut pool noodles that I've had. It didn't really bounce around at all and I can't say that my angles are great but it still moved through the pool noodle really really well. Now I think that more than anything perhaps illustrates the sharpness of the blade. I don't think I'm really getting much better at cutting right now given that it's winter and I do it very seldomly but that I think goes to show that it is a indeed a sharp blade. The next thing that I did was cut tatami and I didn't really have any water bottles left and it was, well, it was cold so I did cut tatami and it actually cut pretty well. You know it's pretty cold out and the tatami is, you know, gets pretty cold as soon as I bring it outside but I found it actually to be a very comfortable blade to cut with and that's kind of surprising given that it's not dedicated to cut tatami. Now it's not the same thing as a blade that is dedicated to cut tatami. There is more resistance as I move through the blade. I definitely feel the impact in my hand as I move through the blade and particularly in my left hand as I cut. There's certainly a sense of rattle and tangible feedback that happens when I strike the tatami and that's not the case with, say, the Minitoshi Performance cutting blade which moved through the tatami mats in a way that I didn't think, you know, it's like they weren't even there. This I definitely feel like I'm striking an object. It doesn't feel bad. It moves through. I can let the sword do the work and I'm doing reasonably controlled strikes in some cases and I didn't find it to be to really be bad though the main thing that I would say is that I felt some wiggle in my handle. It's a pretty rigid blade. It has a very thick spine and much less distal taper than some other swords so when it rattles it kind of shakes you and you feel it. It's also worth noting that, you know, as I'm holding it I kind of choke up here but the the node is somewhere here so I think if I lowered my grip it would perhaps be less but towards the end of this sword I definitely feel, you know, it give me some feedback that I'm striking an object and that said it didn't really have a problem moving through tatami. There were a couple strikes that were bad where the tatami moved. My stand doesn't hold the peg in a fixed place so it's a little bit more challenging to to cut because the tatami can move around quite a bit. The other thing is then I did try a couple strikes on dry tatami and those were not great. It didn't cut through dry tatami but it did actually, well, I don't know, it did cut into them. It just didn't cut through them though. These are tatami that have dried out in the winter and been left outside so whatever water is left in them is frozen. I'm not expecting them to cut through so the fact that they cut into them I guess is overall pretty good and again as you can see in some of the slow-mo footage you can probably see the blade vibrate just a little bit. It's very rigid but that sensation is definitely transferred to my hands perhaps more than I would like it to be. Now that said if you want a blade that's comfortable to use for kata and you want something that can be used for tatami cutting this seems to be a, you know, something reasonable. It cut pretty well for the lighter targets like pool noodles and it moves around pretty easy. The only thing I would caution, I'm not cutting anything super substantial here and I definitely feel a lot of residual shock in my hands, more so than I guess I've noticed on other blades, so it is worth noting that if you're going to be doing heavy target cutting that may be a factor for you. I also did the Onikatana quick test where I just whacked the tip into the stand a couple times and there was no physical damage to the edge at all. It still maintains a very sharp edge here all the way to the tip. It's quite good. Now I suppose it's time for me to answer the question, is it worth it? You know, 450 bucks on the C.S. Iberia website or 400 bucks on Cult of Athena or maybe a little less if you can find it. Yeah, I mean to me personally, one, it's not bad, free Eido. If you want to use it, it's a little on the heavier side but it's still functional and I really like the longer blade. Maybe you can double check with whoever you're buying it from to ask what size it actually is but I found this to be a very comfortable blade to use without being cumbersome and it wasn't too light. It was very, you know, actually pretty comfortable to use for kata. Two, it cut stuff well so if you're doing bottle cutting, if you're doing tatami cutting, if you want a versatile cutting blade, it's thick enough where I wouldn't mind using it on harder targets even though it gives me a little shock in the hand, but it's also light enough to move around through pool noodles and some of the other stuff you want to cut so in terms of a versatile cutter, I think it's a great great blade there as well. The thing is it's not bad for tatami but it's not the best either. If you're doing competitive cutting, I wouldn't say it's the best option. It's also made out of 5160 and the general theory of this type of steel and the way that it's hardened means that it's probably going to be forgiving so if you're cutting non-traditional targets, if you're a new student or if you're an old student, it doesn't really matter. This may not hold an edge as well but at the same time it's going to resist bending and twisting and all that kind of stuff quite a bit more so in terms of durability it seems to be something I would advocate to people that are starting out because there's a lot of it's pretty easy to do a bad cut on on a on a sword and bend it and that's always wildly disappointing so if you want to have something that is less likely to be damaged then getting a through hardened blade is is not a bad idea and this is an inexpensive way to do it. It's also pretty just easy to to move around so in general it's it's a nice blade to move freeido for whatever you're doing and it also I don't know personally to me it has a very nice theme. Dragon King seems to be pretty on par with Hanwe in terms of the casting quality that they're putting out on their blades. It's just it's pretty well done. It's got enough little stuff that makes it you know unique and different. I like the theme except for the monkeys in the snow and it has a contemporary looking thing. I think Dragon King actually has a couple really really appealing looking swords out there from a theme standpoint and I like I like their their approach and the other bit is that it's just a different shape. It's not the same it's it's a little bit more elegant to shape than what I've seen from some of the other vendors out there and I really I appreciate the the take on it not really overbuilding it but using a durable steel with some artistic qualities in the fittings. I think it's it's overall a very compelling offering. 400 bucks is is not terribly expensive in the realm of katanas. It's not cheap it's not 100 bucks but it's also not thousands of dollars and for what you're getting here to have some nice fittings something that's assembled and tight and doesn't wiggle around and that's durable and and you know I would say versatile I think it's a very compelling offering at least if that's what you're looking for. Now I'd probably steer you in a different direction if you're looking for something exclusively to do iaido with and you have you want something light and easy to move around and that you don't have to clean after practicing with then something like an aluminum iaido is really where you want to go. If you're doing competitive tatami cutting then I would probably not suggest this either because you're doing a very specific task and there are blades that are designed to more effectively do that but if you want something pretty that's Japanese sword shaped and you know you want something durable and forgiving then this is this is not a bad deal not a bad offer and I have to say I'm more impressed than I thought I would be. Anyway folks that's pretty much the end of the review the other things that I suppose I'd note is that if you like the review do the thumbs up if you think I missed something throw it in the comments below if you're giving me a thumbs down though the more or you didn't like it or you think I missed something let me know why the the reason I do this it takes a lot of time and energy and yada yada yada and bitches and moans the the point is that I'm really trying to do these reviews to help people spend their money more wisely I know when I went to go look for swords there wasn't a lot of information and hopefully the footage even if you watch these videos on mute which I suspect many of you do that the the pictures and stuff show enough information for you to spend your money with in a more informed way than you did before and if I'm not doing that then I'm wasting my time and I'm wasting yours and I'd like to know how I can not do that so if you have some suggestions on what I can do to improve these videos these reviews or what else you would like to see or what else would be helpful to to let you know if it's worth your money or not please let me know I would be happy at least if I if it's a possible thing for me to do that doesn't involve you know breaking all of my collection I would I would like to know it anyway that's that's all I have for you as always uh cheers and thanks for watching damn it god damn it god damn it at 12 and a quarter god ******* damn it I can't ******* ******* **** make all your noise 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 you ready okay try to do better next time dragon king or don't whatever I don't know if most people care I'm moving on heavy part the blade the first thing I'll note is that the blade is made out of a steel called 5160 or at least it's so now we can talk about the piece that's about the blade is that my nose is running and it's all wet the other little the other now we can talk about that by anyone nope can you turn it down a little bit now quick uh why do you like this sword what do you think what's good about it um I like it and it has snowflakes on it it's really like bumpy here really bumpy yeah where do you like snowflakes because they have like patterns on them and they look really so it's it's bumpy and it's got snowflakes anything else nothing else well that's fair maybe you should do these reviews you're a little bit more concise than I am