Masahiro vs Sukotto: A sword review

I posted this in the sword forum I frequent, and I’m reposting it here

Hello all,

A few weeks ago I came across this thread, which mentioned a new, untried cheap katana source:

As I was looking for a project blade I decided to snap one up. Sukotto Swordworks. They sell katanas on ebay , starting at a penny each (although now they seem to have upped their price), and they also have ones on their website for $150. I managed to grab mine for $68.98 shipped.

The seller shipped through UPS and was very helpful throughout the entire process. I e-mailed a few times with questions before the sale and once after the sale about the fittings. I always received next-day answers.

Since I am a newbie to sword collecting (and a poor graduate student) I can not afford nice swords quite yet. As a result of this, the only thing I have to compare my Sukotto with is my Masahiro. I also have an iaito, which was imported from Japan, however comparing an iaito to a katana is not fair. The iaito did wind up in a few of the later pictures. Basically I found that even compared to other cheaper blades, the Masahiro is crappier.

The condition of both katanas are “as received”, in other words other then standard cleaning (wiping down and oiling) I have not done any modification to either of them.

Of course, the first thing I did when I received the swords was to pull them apart. It has been several months since I pulled the Masahiro apart. When I took it apart the first time I had trouble with the mekugi pin. I go into detail on this later on.

The Sukotto was a pain to take apart. The tsuka was on so tight that I had to take a rubber mallet to it (very carefully!) after removing mekugi pins. It took me more then a half an hour to get it apart. I can say that this blade will never fall apart.

Picture goodness follows:

First-off, a photo of the overall blade shape of both katanas. The Sukotto is on the bottom of this image.

Here is a scan of the tips of each katana… The Masahiro is first, and the Sukotto is second:

Here is an image of the hamons of the two blades, again the Masahiro is first.

I have been told that they hamon on Masahiro blades is acid etched. I’m not sure how to check the Sukotto’s hamon, however for this price range is is almost certainly fake. I do prefer the look of the sukotto. Assuming it’s fake, it does not jump out at me and scream “FAKE” the way the Masahiro does.

The nakago of both. Again the Masahiro is first, and there is two scans of each blade. 2 pictures of the Masahiro, then two pictures of the Sukotto.

Here is where the QC of Masahiro failed. On my blade there is a defect directly above where the habaki ends. If you look in the second scan you can see that the metal is bent. If you would like a higher resolution picture of my defect, a link to the full sized scan is here (900k).

Yes, that is the letter “L” written on the nakago of the Sukotto. It was there when I received the katana.

For comparison, here is the kissaki of both in a single shot. Please excuse the camera glare.

All good katanas have good habakis. (can you plural that word?)

I am happy to say that both the Masahiro and the Sukotto have nice, beefy habakis.

The Sukotto habaki had some streaks on it when I received it (as seen in the photo). About ten minutes with a scotch pad scrubber fixed it up nicely. The pictures later on of the katanas assembled have the “fixed” habakis.

Sukotto is on the right:

The next thing on a katana after the habaki are the seppa.

Here the Sukotto showed how they skimp, and what makes a cheaper katana cheaper. In this set of pictures the Sukotto is on top. Notice the pitting on the seppa. Here is a link to a uncropped scan of the seppa so that you can see better detail.

The tsubas are next in line. Both Sukotto and Masahiro use cheaply-cast tsubas. What you can’t quite see in the picture is that the Masahiro tsuba is made of copper, while the Sukotto seems to be made of steel. My Masahiro came with three tsubas, I’ve only pictured one of them.

The Sukotto is on the right.

Now, on to the tsukas. The tsuka on the Masahiro is much too “rounded” I think would be what I would say. The grip on my iaito is rounded to fit the hands, and is slimmer in the middle, while the Masahiro feels like I’m gripping a baseball bat. The Sukotto is not quite as nice as the iaito, however it is quite a bit better. Neither the Sukotto nor the Masahiro have a full wrap of ray-skin, both are strips. I can’t tell fake ray-skin from real ray-skin, so I can’t comment on that aspect.

Something else to note on the Masahiro: The menuki, they are PLASTIC… This annoys me to no end. I couldn’t get a good photo of it due to crappy camera (and the fact that I can’t put a tsuka in a flatbed scanner). The menuki on the Sukotto are metal.

The wraps on both are about the same, neither are as good as the iaito. Both, however are tight. The cotton on the Sukotto seem a bit more frizzy. The kasira on the Sukotto is a bit lose. All fittings on the tsuka of the Masahiro are tight.

The Sukotto has two mekugi pins, while the Masahiro has one. The peg that came in my Masahiro is not in good shape, and needs to be replaced. I don’t think I damaged it during removal. It has a big crack down one side of it. Again, I could not get a picture that was worth looking at of this. The mekugi that came with the Sukotto were in fine shape. It looks like the Sukotto is assembled with the tsuka after forging the blade, then the hole for the mekugi is drilled through both the tsuka and the blade at the same time.

Again, the Masahiro is first:

Now that we have gone through the blade parts, now we go on to the sayas. Neither blade has horn on the end of the saya. The Sukotto does have a horn cap at the Koiguchi.

The Masahiro is on the right.

The sageo on the Masahiro is also depressing, as it is too short to make a nice knot with:

Once again, the fittings on the saya of the Masahiro are made of plastic.

I’m not too sure why this is, but even though the length of the Masahiro and the Sukotto are nearly identical the saya of the Masahiro is almost 2 inches shorter. The lacquer on both sayas is well done, and I see no pitting in either one.

The Masahiro has this odd waxy stuff inside the saya. I’m not too sure what it is (looks like clear crayon wax), and it gets all over the blade every time I put it in the saya. It makes pulling the blade out of the saya to show it off not as much of a wow as it should be.

Now we have seen everything except the end result, so here are three pictures of both blades. (The iaito is also in these shots, with the blue wrap)