Cold Steel Jade Lion Dagger
Mar 3, 2011 8:27:59 GMT
Post by SwordFan on Mar 3, 2011 8:27:59 GMT
Introduction
Well this is to be my first review of six , so hopefully they will get better as I go along . Iv started off small with the Cold Steel Jade Lion Dagger .Reviews to come over the next week or so are :Hanwei Song Sword , Hanwei Qi Jian Sword , Fable Blades Gurthang , Hanwei Charlegmane Saber and the Cold Steel Jade Lion Gim .
All these types of swords are all fairly new to me as for many a year Iv only found myself interested in Katana and Japanese style swords .Over the last while though Iv been more and more drawn to different swords (Maybe it was katana overkill , ha ha ) .Anyhow enough said and time to get down to the details .
Historical overview
The concept of the guardian lion emerged in China over 1800 years ago during the Han Dynasty. The lion, fierce, courageous, loyal and swift, was the perfect symbol to guard home and hearth. Both decorative and symbolic, it was common to see elegant sculptures of these lions guarding the homes of the wealthy and aristocratic or even the gates of the Imperial Palace and the tombs of the Chinese emperors.
Initial Impressions
After a bit of a long wait the box from KOA finally arrived at our Customs section ,there were some large delays with it arriving here purely because of all the bad weather abroad which resulted in delayed flights etc etc . So once it had arrived at our Customs department I was quick to jump in the Car and go and collect it as delivery to me would have taken another couple of days as Customs were sitting with a backlog of items to process .After collecting it and paying the 38% in Customs and taxes I was on my way home to “play with my new toys” as my wife likes to put it .
The swords (Song Sword , Qi Jian and CS Jade Lion Dagger ) inside the 42” box were well packaged (as always from KOA) .At this point I would just like to make mention of the excellent service I always receive from Ryan at KOA . Their service and help has been nothing short of excellent with us over the years .So much so that I will only buy from them .I love that they always inspect my swords carefully (at my request) for any faults before packaging especially with me being an international buyer as trying to return a damaged item is nothing short of a huge headache and a very expensive .
After removing the brown packaging from the Jade Lion Dagger and taking it out of the small green sword bag I was well pleased to find that the green on the dagger matched my Jade Lion Gim perfectly (well as close as can be) . I was a little worried that the green of the dagger and Gim might vary a little ,but this was not the case . The Jade Lion Dagger was every bit as impressive as its bigger brother (The Gim) . There is just something to be said about a full Rayskin wrap on a scabbard , its just so visually appealing and gives the dagger the WOW factor straight away without even getting to the blade as yet .
Statistics
Taken from Kultofathena :
The Cold Steel Jade Lion Dagger features a hand forged Damascus steel blade with a subtle swirling pattern. The highly detailed guard and pommel are cast in nickel-silver. The wood grip is wrapped in genuine rayskin and a green cord wrap. The matching scabbard is made of rosewood and covered in highly polished samé (ray skin) dyed to match the handle. The highly detailed scabbard hardware is also cast in nickel-silver. Includes a green cotton sword bag.
Blade Length: 14 1/4” Long
Handle Length: 4” Long
Overall Length: 21 1/2” Long
Weight: 1lb 4.6oz
Thickness: 5.9mm – 4.6mm
Width: 28.9mm
Pommel : Nut
Components
The Blade:
The blade is very well polished and has a very subtle swirling pattern to it which looks great . I much prefer the subtleness of this compared to the cheaper “folded” blades which have a poor polish and have been heavily etched to really enhance all the patterns . In fact the Jade Lion Dagger is so well polished that one has to look closely to see the swirling patterns formed by the “Damascus” blade .
I took out my cleaning kit and then proceeded to clean off all the oil and give it a coat of Ren Wax .It was razor sharp ,in fact so sharp I had to be very careful when removing all the shipping oil or risk removing a finger or two . Is it paper cutting sharp ? Most definitely !
The Handle
The handle features a wooden core wrapped in rayskin (looks like a full wrap to me) and a green cord wrap .The cord wrap has been done extremely tightly and is very comfortable in hand .
The Guard:
The Guard features a very well cast nickel-silver guardian lion which is highly detailed . I have considered taking some metal glo to it to get it to shine even more ,but have since decided not to as I think as it is currently makes it look a little older (for lack of a better word) and I think if it were made to look to shiny that it would just cheapen the look . This is just my opinion though .
The Pommel:
The Pommel also features a well cast nickel-silver guardian lion which matches the Guard .
The Scabbard:
The matching scabbard is made of rosewood and covered in highly polished ray skin dyed to match the handle. The detailed scabbard hardware is also cast in nickel-silver and matches the whole flowing guardian lion theme .The scabbard together with the blade on this piece are one of the highlights for me .I love the full wrap of rayskin on a scabbard .Overall the scabbard is very well done with the rayskin placed perfectly and polished to a high gloss .
Handling Characteristics
This is my first dagger so I have nothing to compare it to handling wise , so all I will say here is that it really is very quick and lively .It would make a lethal weapon especially with the blade being as sharp as it is . I found the overall balance to be very good in hand .
Cutting
Well unfortunately the weather has been really poor of late here ,so Iv not had a chance to do too much cutting other than a couple of water bottles which this little Jade Lion handled with ease !In fact its so sharp that it was almost as cutting air when it sailed through the water bottle and it took no effort at all !Hopefully once the weather improves ill be able to get some cutting on video with all my new swords and then update all the reviews at some point .
Conclusions
Overall I'm very pleased with the dagger as I was with its bigger brother . At $260 it may be considered a little expensive by some ,but considering the blade and the full rayskin wrap on the scabbard I think that it fairly priced . When you consider that for $660 you can get a matching set in the Gim and dagger ,well I think its a fair price ,I mean most of my folded katana cost more than that and that's just one sword with a plain black saya .
Pros
Very Sharp blade with a great polish and very nice subtle swirling pattern
Full Rayskin wrap on scabbard which has been very well polished to a high gloss finish.
Quality silver-nickel fittings with a matching theme throughout
Very tight cord wrap
Cons
The only fault I could find was that the one fitting (with the ring) on the scabbard was slightly loose ,which I took care of with one drop of super glue .
The Bottom Line
I would definitely recommend this little Jade Lion Dagger especially if you have its bigger brother as they make perfect companions and look great when displayed together .Being my first dagger I was not sure what to expect ,but I was and still am very pleased and impressed with the Jade Lion Dagger .
Well this is to be my first review of six , so hopefully they will get better as I go along . Iv started off small with the Cold Steel Jade Lion Dagger .Reviews to come over the next week or so are :Hanwei Song Sword , Hanwei Qi Jian Sword , Fable Blades Gurthang , Hanwei Charlegmane Saber and the Cold Steel Jade Lion Gim .
All these types of swords are all fairly new to me as for many a year Iv only found myself interested in Katana and Japanese style swords .Over the last while though Iv been more and more drawn to different swords (Maybe it was katana overkill , ha ha ) .Anyhow enough said and time to get down to the details .
Historical overview
The concept of the guardian lion emerged in China over 1800 years ago during the Han Dynasty. The lion, fierce, courageous, loyal and swift, was the perfect symbol to guard home and hearth. Both decorative and symbolic, it was common to see elegant sculptures of these lions guarding the homes of the wealthy and aristocratic or even the gates of the Imperial Palace and the tombs of the Chinese emperors.
Initial Impressions
After a bit of a long wait the box from KOA finally arrived at our Customs section ,there were some large delays with it arriving here purely because of all the bad weather abroad which resulted in delayed flights etc etc . So once it had arrived at our Customs department I was quick to jump in the Car and go and collect it as delivery to me would have taken another couple of days as Customs were sitting with a backlog of items to process .After collecting it and paying the 38% in Customs and taxes I was on my way home to “play with my new toys” as my wife likes to put it .
The swords (Song Sword , Qi Jian and CS Jade Lion Dagger ) inside the 42” box were well packaged (as always from KOA) .At this point I would just like to make mention of the excellent service I always receive from Ryan at KOA . Their service and help has been nothing short of excellent with us over the years .So much so that I will only buy from them .I love that they always inspect my swords carefully (at my request) for any faults before packaging especially with me being an international buyer as trying to return a damaged item is nothing short of a huge headache and a very expensive .
After removing the brown packaging from the Jade Lion Dagger and taking it out of the small green sword bag I was well pleased to find that the green on the dagger matched my Jade Lion Gim perfectly (well as close as can be) . I was a little worried that the green of the dagger and Gim might vary a little ,but this was not the case . The Jade Lion Dagger was every bit as impressive as its bigger brother (The Gim) . There is just something to be said about a full Rayskin wrap on a scabbard , its just so visually appealing and gives the dagger the WOW factor straight away without even getting to the blade as yet .
Statistics
Taken from Kultofathena :
The Cold Steel Jade Lion Dagger features a hand forged Damascus steel blade with a subtle swirling pattern. The highly detailed guard and pommel are cast in nickel-silver. The wood grip is wrapped in genuine rayskin and a green cord wrap. The matching scabbard is made of rosewood and covered in highly polished samé (ray skin) dyed to match the handle. The highly detailed scabbard hardware is also cast in nickel-silver. Includes a green cotton sword bag.
Blade Length: 14 1/4” Long
Handle Length: 4” Long
Overall Length: 21 1/2” Long
Weight: 1lb 4.6oz
Thickness: 5.9mm – 4.6mm
Width: 28.9mm
Pommel : Nut
Components
The Blade:
The blade is very well polished and has a very subtle swirling pattern to it which looks great . I much prefer the subtleness of this compared to the cheaper “folded” blades which have a poor polish and have been heavily etched to really enhance all the patterns . In fact the Jade Lion Dagger is so well polished that one has to look closely to see the swirling patterns formed by the “Damascus” blade .
I took out my cleaning kit and then proceeded to clean off all the oil and give it a coat of Ren Wax .It was razor sharp ,in fact so sharp I had to be very careful when removing all the shipping oil or risk removing a finger or two . Is it paper cutting sharp ? Most definitely !
The Handle
The handle features a wooden core wrapped in rayskin (looks like a full wrap to me) and a green cord wrap .The cord wrap has been done extremely tightly and is very comfortable in hand .
The Guard:
The Guard features a very well cast nickel-silver guardian lion which is highly detailed . I have considered taking some metal glo to it to get it to shine even more ,but have since decided not to as I think as it is currently makes it look a little older (for lack of a better word) and I think if it were made to look to shiny that it would just cheapen the look . This is just my opinion though .
The Pommel:
The Pommel also features a well cast nickel-silver guardian lion which matches the Guard .
The Scabbard:
The matching scabbard is made of rosewood and covered in highly polished ray skin dyed to match the handle. The detailed scabbard hardware is also cast in nickel-silver and matches the whole flowing guardian lion theme .The scabbard together with the blade on this piece are one of the highlights for me .I love the full wrap of rayskin on a scabbard .Overall the scabbard is very well done with the rayskin placed perfectly and polished to a high gloss .
Handling Characteristics
This is my first dagger so I have nothing to compare it to handling wise , so all I will say here is that it really is very quick and lively .It would make a lethal weapon especially with the blade being as sharp as it is . I found the overall balance to be very good in hand .
Cutting
Well unfortunately the weather has been really poor of late here ,so Iv not had a chance to do too much cutting other than a couple of water bottles which this little Jade Lion handled with ease !In fact its so sharp that it was almost as cutting air when it sailed through the water bottle and it took no effort at all !Hopefully once the weather improves ill be able to get some cutting on video with all my new swords and then update all the reviews at some point .
Conclusions
Overall I'm very pleased with the dagger as I was with its bigger brother . At $260 it may be considered a little expensive by some ,but considering the blade and the full rayskin wrap on the scabbard I think that it fairly priced . When you consider that for $660 you can get a matching set in the Gim and dagger ,well I think its a fair price ,I mean most of my folded katana cost more than that and that's just one sword with a plain black saya .
Pros
Very Sharp blade with a great polish and very nice subtle swirling pattern
Full Rayskin wrap on scabbard which has been very well polished to a high gloss finish.
Quality silver-nickel fittings with a matching theme throughout
Very tight cord wrap
Cons
The only fault I could find was that the one fitting (with the ring) on the scabbard was slightly loose ,which I took care of with one drop of super glue .
The Bottom Line
I would definitely recommend this little Jade Lion Dagger especially if you have its bigger brother as they make perfect companions and look great when displayed together .Being my first dagger I was not sure what to expect ,but I was and still am very pleased and impressed with the Jade Lion Dagger .