Dragon king Autumn Leaf Katana review

What's going on my YouTube friends? We are looking at yet another Dragon King Katana from their lineup. On my right side here is the Fletching model. Very beautiful sword. And on my left is the Hana model. And they both have a very Nahanto, Japanese, classical theme to them. And what we're going to be looking at here today is the Autumn Leaf. And it has that classical theme to it too also. So let's take a look here, shall we? Starting from the Kasura. It's your average Kasura, however, you know, it has Dragon King kind of theme to it. Most of all their Katanas have that where it's an inlay of silver. Now I don't know why, but a lot of sword companies do this where they kind of put a patina on their fittings. But it just looks like solid black. It just looks painted over. It doesn't look natural. So I took some off and I do this with a lot of my Katanas. I let nature take its course and it gives it an authentic patina. It doesn't take long really. If you'd move some material, you know, you could take your fingers and grab some oil from, it sounds crazy, but from your nose and everything and then wipe it on the part area and that's going to basically accelerate the patina process from the oil and everything from your skin. This part does not dig into your hand if you're asking that question as sometimes these fittings can do that. However, this one does not. Moving on to the Ito, I believe this is just cotton Ito. And the Samagawa, I got to say for Dragon King, I'm a little bit disappointed. Why do I say that? Well, let me show you. Here is one of their, when Dragon King first hit the market, there was, that's the Samagawa they were putting out. And as they've grown, that's the Samagawa they're putting out. That kind of goes back to how I feel about smaller companies and what happens when they get too big and their name gets popular. But we'll get into that later. As far as the wrapping, I am being completely honest, this wrapping is so tight, I can't even move it. I mean, you can't even feel it moving just a little bit. It is super tight. The Manuki is a grasshopper theme. It's kind of hard to make out with the wrapping around it, but you guys take my word for it. As far as the wrapping and the pegs, the diamonds are centered. If you just put a line through where they cross section, they're okay. Some of them are a little off, but it's nothing to whine at, really. This is advertised on Cult of Athena, I believe, 11 and 1 4th or something, 11 and some change. However, it is 12 inch blade. Not blade, but tsuka, excuse me. And the pegs, the pegs they did right and they did wrong on this. The pegs where you would remove one peg from the opposite end, and that's basically what they did instead of having them both in the same direction. However, where they placed them, it runs into the Ito, same thing on the other side here, and it's right next to the Ito, which is definitely not a positive. However, the handle is very comfortable in the hand. It does, I'm not sure if it's picking up on the picture here, it does have a slight taper in the center, if you can see that. And moving on, now again, I took some of the finish off of here, the Fuchi, and it's your average Fuchi. I like them kind of long, you know, no wonder like kind of like that short, it doesn't really look right, but that's a good length on there. And it doesn't dig into the skin when you hold it, there's no gouging into that because that also happens. Moving on, now this is, this is a cast fitted Tsuba. However, they did a good job as you could see detail of the leaves here because it's Autumn Leaf theme, Autumn Katana, Dragon King, Autumn Leaf. And you can see the plant veins of the leaves. So that, I mean, that's very visible. Good job on the casting. And there's another thing that a lot of people would wonder probably, as this happens sometimes when you get this type of Tsuba, is you get sharp jagged edges around there. However, that is not the case with this. There is nothing sharp, there's nothing digging into the skin of hand. However, when you're holding a Katana, your hand should not be up against the guard. But however, if you did have your hand in there, there's nothing that's going to scratch it or scrape it. So they did keep that in mind as they made this Katana. Moving on, the Seppa here, silver, and that's kind of Dragon King's calling card. And it has, it's a unique edging around the Seppa. Nicely done. And they have their Hibaki in silver. Very beautiful. Get you another look at it. This Katana is meant for taller gentlemen. If you're at the six foot height and above, this would be a Katana for you. This Hana here is like 28 inches. This is actually advertised as a 30 inch blade. However, I measured it, and this is the way you're supposed to measure it from here. It is 28 inches long, not 28, excuse me, 29. So there's an inch missing. So, you know, to me, that's not a big deal. But if I was in school and being a practitioner and my teacher told me, okay, I want you to buy a Katana with a Suka at this length and a blade at this length. And you got this in with that much of a difference that could upset some people. And I could understand why. And that's very surprising for Dragon King. But we'll get into more of that later here as we go. Now the steel is 5160. This is not differentially hardened as the Fletching model or the Hana. 5160 is a very tough and stout steel. It's also used on the Hanwei Raptor series. And those are marketed towards beginner cutters. And they put that steel on there for beginner cutters, because it's a type of steel that could take a licking and keep on ticking. 5160 is very strong. Now, however, we'll get into this afterwards. It depends how they harden it, okay? There is no differentially hardened. There is no homone. And depending on the rockwell and hardness will depend how long this edge on here will hold up. Now, speaking on the level of sharpness before we proceed to the Kasaki tip, keep in mind before I give you this rating, if you've been watching my videos, I've been practicing a lot and really getting into how fine of an edge I could get on a katana. As I've owned real Japanese-made katanas, and that came back from polishers, you know. And feeling the level of sharpness, a real Japanese Nahanto is razor sharp. And when they say razor sharp, it is like scalpel sharp. It is extremely sharp. If I had to rate this level on a factor 1 through 10 on the sharpness level, I would say about 6, okay? But again, this is not uncommon as often many katanas you will see advertised as razor sharp or very sharp. And what you get in is a different story. You could see many channels doing reviews on katanas, and the words, the sentence, I'll have to, you know, fix the edge or get that a little bit sharper, you know, those words following. So that Dragon King is not the only one that does that. The only company I've seen a consistent sharpness level, scary sharp, is Sino Swords or Jeku. So let's get moving here. 5160 steel. Now, I almost forgot this. There, when you get this, this will, the moon will have a mirror polish here, but the below the moon has a satin finish. Now, the Hana has that already. I figured having one is enough. So I began polishing out the, you know, kind of satin finish to a mirror finish. I'm not done with that yet, but I believe in having a nice mirror finish and it brings out the geometry of the katana and just makes the katana's geometry pop, and it gives more character in my taste of things. To each their own. Now, the Kasaki tip is done decently. If I get in focus here, you can see that line there. Now, what they've done on this one is extra special, and I'll show you. And I, it's, I haven't seen any other katana like that. Now, you can see the Kasaki tip. There is curvature, it curves in towards the tip. Now, it is centered. I'm just holding the katana at a weird angle. So they got the, you know, the left and the right side is the same. So it is centered. But what you can see is a transition of polish right there. It goes from the kind of rushed polish at the Kasaki tip end, and then it goes into the mirror polish. It's different. But, you know, it's the Kasaki tip. And to a lot of Nihonto collectors, or even modern collectors, Kasaki tip is considered to be the most important or most beautiful part of the sword. To me, every part is. Okay, the Sai is on there. It has horn around the Koiguchi there. And at the end, it has a nice matte finish to it. So you don't have to worry about touching and leaving fingerprints on it. And the biggest pet peeve for me is that the Fuchi and the Sai line up. And they do. They do perfectly. It looks really weird when one is larger than the other. It just throws the balance off for me. And of course, it has, you know, the beautiful polish to the horn and the silver fittings, which is a standard for most Dragon King lines. Now, it comes with a presentation knot. And this is what I want to talk about. This Saigyou is not what they used to come with. And I'm a believer that a company that is smaller doesn't rush more. And they put more love and care because they're not swamped with orders. And this Katana kind of helps me kind of point that out. As you could see the change in the Samagawa as this Dragon King. When I first got the Dragon King, there was no reviews on Dragon King. And you could see the Samagawa difference there. So that changed. I also seen it changed on the Hana. There's a beautiful signature under here. But under this one with the Tang, there's a signature that it looks like they used a jeweler's electric scriber. Instead of chiseling it the proper way, they sloppily scribbled a name on there and a number. To me, you could tell a lot by the swordsmith, by the Tang. If he cares and takes time to put love and TLC in the Tang, to me that tells me that's a type of swordsmith that is not being rushed. That takes pride in his work. And it's not going to let something leave his forge or work area basically looking half done or partly nice. The other part looking really rugged. Sometimes you could see Tangs with little jagged pieces and it looks a mess. And if you want a good example of one, take a look at the video I did of the Sino sword replacement and beautiful craftsmanship. I'll put a link below so you could see that video. That blade, it was a bare blade, but there was such beauty. The swordsmith from Sino swords, they put so much care into it that that blade alone could be hung up on the wall as a showpiece. It was just outstanding. The Tang, I can't justify it with words, so maybe I could fit a picture in here. Dragon King has the ability to give a real... They have extreme left and extreme right. One side they could give a very beautiful Japanese classical look as you see on these blades here. There's a sunburst and they've done it with this one too. However, on some of their katanas, they could go out to the far left on things and the katana looks like a Harley Davidson design than a swordsmith design, which I don't know. To me, they don't mix well. Unless you're doing something with a post-apocalypse, then you could probably add some flair into that. But if you're making a katana, I think it's just my point of view. If you're making a katana, a katana is Japanese made, then you want to try to stick to a Japanese theme and a Japanese feel to it. And Dragon King has that capacity. But like I said, sometimes it's hit and miss. On these three, they have done that. Its performance is really good as any cut I've done with this on a tatami mat has done well. I still got to do some hard target tests to see. But other than that, its performance was good. It feels very good. It feels lively in the hand. It's not tip heavy. The balance feels really good. It feels really natural in the hand. And especially being for a taller guy, it feels much better than a shorter, maybe 28-inch blade here like the Hana here. However, there are other katanas for that price range that you could look into. Now, Sino swords, for that price, you could get a beautiful sword that's customized from the bottom down on down to the end, to the Saya and to the Kasaki tip, to the color of the Saya, to the matte finish or high gloss. You know, the color of the Ido, the color of the Seigyo, the type of the Tsuba. And the Tsubas, you could get at a, there's a tier level, and they come with a signature on the fittings. And that's unique. And again, when you get a katana from them, it's not just beautiful from the Kasaki tip down to Habaki. When you take the Tsuka handle off, the beauty continues. There's more to be marveled at and admired at the craftsmanship. So with that in hand, I would say, you know, yes, it's worth it. But then again, you got other options out there for the same price. I do love Dragon King. I am happy to have this. This is a good cutter to me. And, you know, I welcome it into its brother and sister or cousin family here. And, you know, the fiance got it for a Christmas gift for me. And knowing what I know about it now, would I still want her to get me this? You know, it was a surprise. But say I knew about it and would I encourage her to buy it? Yes. Yes, I'm glad to have it in my collection. But I guess I'm just trying to say that I know that Dragon King can do better. I guess in short. And that there's other options out there for the same price range. And you could actually have a better built katana customized from Sinosaurs. Now Sinosaurs, you have to wait about two months. And the reason for that is because they don't rush. When they make a product, they want to make it beautiful. They want to make sure it's right before they send it to you. They just don't want to get it done, put it in the box, and ship it out the door to you. So if you look at it from that point of view, you know, there are some people where I've talked about Sinosaurs and people commented that they ordered and they got their katana and they are happy. So with that being said, you know, plus the level of sharpness too. They're one of the few companies I've seen that actually give you a real Japanese Nahanto edge, which it's scary sharp. It's scalpel sharp consistently. Now this one I got to say was sharper when this came in than this one. I don't know. Maybe, you know, this one was just one of the bad ones out of the pick. However, you know, I still like it. Maybe the others have a better signature on there, but there's no signature on this. Just a number. So again, I'm seeing a trend here of the quality care go down, which is unfortunate because I've been an admirer of Dragon King. But again, still, I'd still buy her. I'd still, I don't mind having this in my collection. So anyways, my friends, if you guys got any questions that I may have left out in this review, go ahead and shoot me a comment and question. I'll be glad to answer it as fast as I can. And as always, my friends, keep it sharp and keep it oiled.