Condor Tool & 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 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.

My first experience with Condor. It will certainly not be my last. Holy mackerel !!!!! This is one heck of a piece of metal. Heavy, sharp, very good looking and feels good. This could give me a better workout than lifting weights. All joking aside, I am one of those folks who believes you can't own enough edged tools. I think Condor found a new friend.

I LIVE ON TEN WOODED ACRES AND HAVE LITERALLY CHOPPED THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF SWINGS INTO SOFT TO HARD OAK TREES AND EVERYTHING ELSE I WANTED TO, I ONCE HIT AN OLD NAIL AND IT DIDNT EVEN NICK BLADE, VERY TOUGH AND HOLDS AN EDGE VERY WELL. NOT BALANCED TO REALLY USE AS A ART FORM TYPE BLADE, BUT WITH A SHIELD IT WOULD BE A GREAT HACKER!! I LOVE TO SHOW IT OFF AND TELL FRIENDS HOW NICE IT IS TO BE ABLE TO BUY SUCH A REAL CARBON BASED TRUE SWORD BLADE FOR A GREAT PRICE! IT IS EVERY THING GOOD PEOPLE SAY!!

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.

Heavy!!!, but awesome. This thing is built to last and to cut. Very well made. I did wrap the handle with paracord so that the wooden handle wouldn't get slippery on me. It's a lot bigger than the pictures and the YouTube videos make it appear to be. I truly feel that you would need superhuman powers to break this sword. It is built like a tank.