I received this beast as a gift and am thrilled to have it. It cuts like no one's business. It's LONG, so, if you're on the vertically challenged side, pass on this and get a smaller Japanese sword. For anyone whinning about how Cold Steel Japanese swords don't seat completely in the saya, they're not meant to. There is supposed to be a bit of a gap between the saya and the tsuba. That gives you the room needed to properly draw the sword. Otherwise you risk slicing up your thumb every time you draw. Any Japanese made sword is going to be like that, not just Cold Steel. The fit with this monster is so nice that I don't get any sayuri when sheathing it and I try to make it noisy just to see if I can. This will cut several tatami mats with ease right out of the box. A little touch up on the edge with a carefully used ceramic rod or stone will make this a 4' razor blade. I can't stress enough to be careful when honing and only using ceramic.

Everything I expected, except it didn’t come with the cloth sleeve like my other blades from this series.

It’s more a Nagamaki with its 33 inch blade or ha with a distal taper that came sharp but wouldn’t hurt to be sharper and a 22.5 inch handle or tsuka. The 4ish pound weight of the sword can cause the blade to turn during the swing, so you must be aware of your edge alinement or the blade will roll making your cut unsuccessful. Cheap pool noodles, water bottles and 5 rolled up newspapers should fear this beast. This sword even successfully cut through an inch thick of bamboo at a picnic keeping its edge with no damage. I think it may have also taken a piece off of my cutting stand when someone else was using it. It is also the only sword I own that has knocked over my cutting stand on a non-successful cut. Further more the Ito stayed tight with only the koshirae loosening but some fingernail glue fixed that. The Cold Steel Nodachi / Nagamaki is a beast of a sword that is fun to learn and gives a good workout while doing so.

Love this sword. Slices nice. Comes sharp and feels like a real warrior series.. meaning you can take it innthe field.. get it dirty thrash it.. clean it and keep its a functional warrior field sword.. more realistic than others for sure formout door training.. been running with it too.. I can use this sword practically ..staff applications from my taekwondo apply very well with sword... this sword helps complete me as a martial artist... looking forward to few other swords.. don't think I'll be disappointed!!