Pros: Blade Material, Handle Material, Overall Quality, Finish
Cons: Sheath/Scabbard
High quality katana with saya not so much
Just received my Cold Steel Dragonfly katana. This is my first Japanese style sword. Overall I am very favorably impressed with the esthetics and workmanship present in the sword. Blade is very substantial with excellent "two tone" polish. Upper part of blade has a mirror polish and lower portion that slants toward edge has a very pleasing Scotch-Brite type scratch polish that runs parallel to the edge. Incidentally, this area of the finish may be touched up easily with purple Scotch-Brite. Edge is very sharp. Tsuba, tsuka, and related parts are all very tight with no slop. I weighed the sword without the saya and I got 42oz. This is about five oz heavier than Cold Steel lists in its specs. However, it is only slightly heavier than the 2 1/2 pounds that I have seen listed as nominal average weight for a katana of this length. I also saw some much more expensive traditional katanas for sale that weighed as much as 3 lbs. The saya (scabbard) on my example was a little scuffed up as received. Had some chips in lacquer near throat and at the tip. I don't think this was a result of shipping damage. I touched these up with Testors gloss black enamel; matched pretty well. Speaking of shipping, KnifeCenter let me down on this. Katana arrived in a very small diameter box with only very minimal padding inside. The tsuba actually wore through the cardboard slightly. Fortunately it didn't do any damage. I called Cold Steel to ask about some other matters and asked them if this is how they ship one they sell direct. They said no, the box I got was only the "product box", and it should have been shipped inside a more substantial outer box. Overall, I am very pleased with the sword and can recommend it.
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