Damascus Steel Katana with Gold Lion Tsuba, Black-Red Lacquer Saya & Black Ito

The 28.74-inch manganese Damascus steel blade is the visual centerpiece of this katana, ground to 62 HRC and polished to a bright chrome finish that lets the layered fold patterns read clearly from tip to habaki. A defined hamon line runs the blade's length, the hand-finished edge tracing the boundary between hard and soft steel. At 2.8 lb total weight and 40.55 inches overall, the proportions follow classic katana geometry without veering into unwieldy territory. Collectors interested in the broader range of Damascus Steel Katana options will find this piece sits at a strong intersection of material quality and visual drama.

The tsuka measures 10.62 inches and is built on a full tang core - blade steel runs continuously through the handle, locked with mekugi and wrapped first in genuine white rayskin (samegawa) for grip texture, then covered in black ito in a traditional diamond-window wrap. The white samegawa diamonds showing through the wrap create the classic high-contrast pattern that makes a well-finished tsuka immediately recognizable.

The gold-tone alloy tsuba carries a lion theme in raised relief, the cast detailing crisp enough to read clearly from arm's length. Gold fittings at fuchi and kashira tie the metalwork together, and the seppa on either side of the tsuba maintain clean blade-to-guard alignment. The lion motif reads as commanding without being decorative clutter - it earns its place in the overall design.

The saya is hardwood lacquered to a matte black ground with red speckle detailing distributed evenly across all 29.92 inches - from the image the effect is unmistakably rich, the red catches light against the black base in a way flat lacquer cannot replicate. Real horn koiguchi at the mouth and kojiri at the butt add a material contrast that lacquered wood alone cannot deliver. The black sageo is knotted at the mouth in a traditional tie with an amber bead accent, echoing the ito color and completing a koshirae that reads as a considered whole. For related work in this finish family, the Orange Pattern Steel Japanese Samurai Swords collection offers additional speckle-saya variants worth comparing.

Packaging dimensions run 42.9 x 3.9 x 3.5 inches at a shipping weight of 3.3 lb, sized to arrive without the sword needing to be partially disassembled. The koshirae style is full traditional koshirae with every fitting present - tsuba, fuchi, kashira, habaki, seppa, sageo - making this a complete display piece straight from the box.