CondorTool & Knife Dynasty Dadao Sword | 1075 High Carbon Steel Martial Arts Sword with a Walnut Handle | 6mm Thick with Handcrafted Welted Leather Sheath | 21.3in Blade | 51.2oz

Well packed, scabbard in leather, but closing bottoms are not good. Very heavy, well made, not razor sharp, but remember for shipping it would not be so sharp. Well balanced. Grip is well made. Recommended.

This sword is so well made that I can't understand how Condor can afford to sell it so cheap. It's superior by leaps and bounds to other Dadao style swords on the market that cost 3 or 4 times as much. This is not a delicate, finesse weapon intended for the highly skilled, gifted swordsman but, if you do your research, neither was the traditional Dadao. They were usually hastily made, unrefined, battle tools to be used by peasant fighters with limited training. They were later adopted by trained Chinese military forces but we're more symbolic and for intimidation than practical battlefield combat. People who don't know what they're talking about may differently but there is a romanticized mythology attached to the Dadao which many mistake for being accurate when it's anything but.In reality this is more battleaxe than sword. It's not well balanced, it's not easy to wield, you can forget about parrying and thrusting or and fancy pants spinning shaolin monk maneuvers. This is meant for ferociously swinging at a target and cleaving it in two. That's it, that's all. The steel is very good and the handle solid and sturdy but not overly comfortable.I'm so impressed with this sword that I'm giving it 5 stars in spite of it having some damage due to shipping. The reason why I feel the damage is the fault of Condor is because I've read the of the same problem in a number of reviews. The box they ship it in is just exactly big enough to fit the sword with virtually no wiggle room. This means that any banging around of the box during shipping can/will damage blade tip. And, as many have experienced, the tip of my blade was slightly rolled. This makes no sense to me since the sword comes with a fantastic leather sheath. Why Condor doesn't ship the sword in the sheath is a mystery. Instead they ship the sword wrapped in paper lying on top of the sheath. Duh.

I purchased this from amazon because I got bored of my normal axes and machetes. I didn't know exactly what to expect as 90 dollars for a sword seems really reasonable.I had to go to my buddies house and try it out, so we went to work on some pine trees. I was able to cut throw a branch in 1 swing that was atleast 3 inches diameter. I also used it to chop some hardwood. I will not chop hard wood often as I'm sure it will chip the blade but it's a sword after all so it's supposed to be thin. I can't imagine what this would do to flesh but I know it is still standing strong after all the abuse I put it through 2 weekends in a row.

I looked at some reviews of the sword- good strong blade with distal taper and good spring steel, horrible square too narrow handle, and historically accurate clumsy weight-forward balance- All true. I took a file and reshaped the wood near the 'hilt' to taper into the blade, and wrapped it with two layers of cotton road bike bar tape, and the handling and comfort improved immensely with about 20 minutes of work. The heavier the wrap you use the better the balance and the heavier the chop! I may drill the small hole many dadao have at the end to further improve the balance and add a red flag for awesomeness. Great beater sword, you can let your buddies bash anything not metal without worry, it's a real tank and a serious zombie crusher.

It came with a rolled and chipped tip.

waaaay heftier than they make it look online, and very much a chopper. hilt is, for me, a tad short, but others might not have that issue. point of balance is about an inch-and-a-half in front of the guard, which makes it fairly lively in the hand, given the size of the blade. handle scales are well made and handsome, but a bit small for those of use with larger hands, and a bit slick because of how polished they are. that being said, the ring on the end of the hilt helps lock in your lower hand nicely. blade takes a bit of maintenance because its carbon steel, but a light coat of mineral oil after playing with it is all that's required. all-in-all a very good blade for the price.

This is amazing for the price. The only two negatives are that the blade is slightly off center and the handle can be a bit uncomfortable if you choke up on the crossguard. The blade is not off-center enough to feel a difference when cutting, it is just an aesthetic. As far as the handle, I wrapped a single layer of paracord around the tang between the guard and the wood slabs on the handle, and it feels nice now. This will cut through anything you can throw at it. For the price I paid, I could not be more happy. This is not a wall hanger. This is a tool to be used. Thanks, condor.

Cool blade, no cracks in steel and looks nice. However, upon opening the packaging I found the tip of the blade was bent. I understand this was probably incurred during shipping, but it is not surprising as the tip was protected by nothing more than a small piece of folded paper. Damage could have easily been avoided with a tiny bit more care put into the packaging. I will most likely will have to grind off the tip to correct. Not hard for me to do, but will change the change the shape of the blade at the end; which is not appreciated.