MAKOTO Handmade Sharp Samurai Shirasaya Sword Rosewood Burgundy Red Scabbard Saya

(This is a long review)Normally I never do reviews but in this case I am. Before buying anything on Amazon I usu. read the reviews. I am constantly amazed at the (I hate to call it stupidity) reviews that sometimes aren’t even understandable; so many mispelled words; and sentence syntax that is that of an eight year old; and then there are the ones that try to answer a question ‘is it sharp?’ and the first guy says “very sharp” and the very next guy says “dull”. I don’t get it. I did not see a review for the Rosewood Katana so here is my ‘stab’ at it. Let’s start with what it actually is:SHIRASAYA: Japanese sword mountings are the various housings and associated fittings that hold the blade of a Japanese sword when it is being worn or stored. Koshirae refers to the ornate mountings of a Japanese sword used when the sword blade is being worn by its owner, whereas the shirasaya is a plain undecorated wooden mounting composed of a saya (scabbard) and tsuka (handle) that the sword blade is stored in when not being used.HAMON (Temper line): ‘Is it real?’ No, it is not real and the mfg. even states that it is not real. It is too much of a ‘perfect’ wave pattern to be the real thing anyway.WEIGHT: The handle and blade weighs 1# 15oz. (31.3 oz.) (888g) The scabbard alone weighs 6.6 oz. (187g) Total weight is 2#6oz. (37.95oz) (1,075g)MEASUREMENTS: Handle is 11”; Blade is 28.5”; Overall including scabbard is 40.5” (for those of you who are actually counting, the ‘extra’ inch is because the blade does not go all the way to the end of the scabbard-one inch away)HIGH CARBON STEEL: For those who asked the question of ‘why is there oily stuff all over the blade?’ there is a very good reason. Yes, it is oil and it is there to protect the blade from rust and/or corrosion. Steel =Iron = Ferrous= Fe; in contact with the Air = Oxygen = O2; and what you get is FeO2 (commonly called Ferrous Oxide, also known as “Rust”) If you wipe this oily coating off the blade when you first get it and then when you are done with it you should always put a light coat of oil back on the blade. 3in1 lightweight oil works great.TANG: The mfg says that it IS a full handle tang. Some of the reviews said “NOT a full tang” and then another one said it “It is a full handle tang”. Who are you going to believe? Some people said they even took it apart. WHY? There is no way I’m going to take my handle apart and then try to put it back together and try to match the matte finish on the Rosewood handle with the scabbard. I happen to have several ‘very strong’ magnets and I put one on the blade and it clung very tight to the blade. Then I took another magnet and went down along the handle and it ‘sensed’ the metal of the tang right through the wood of the handle all the way to about 1” from the end. IT IS a full length tang. One of my pics shows the magnets clinging to the wood of the handle. “A picture is worth a 1000 words”SHARPNESS: Again, here we go….one guy says “Its dull” and another says “Very sharp”. What’s with these reviewers?? Here’s the facts. I got my blade and ran my thumb ‘across’ it very carefully. It IS sharp. Sharp enough that I would not run my finger ‘along’ the blade as it is very capable of cutting skin. I have a “Chefs Choice” Trizor Edge XV knife sharpener (that I happened to buy on Amazon and am VERY happy with it) It has 2 diamond cutting wheels and the third is a buffing wheel. I was amazed that the thickness of the blade did fit in the wheels. I did not want to actually re-cut the blade so I put it through the third ‘buffing’ wheel….3 times on each side and it was SO SHARP that I literally could not run my finger ‘across’ it. So I tried it on a piece of regular copy paper; held it with my left hand and ran the blade across it with my other hand and one slice down went right down the paper in one smooth motion. Again, the pic tells the story.FINISH: The Rosewood is beautiful and the handle matches the scabbard perfectly. There is no difference in the finish or the wood from one end to the other. There is no small gap between the two either. For example, I was showing it to a friend and pulled it out of the sword bag (provided) and he didn’t know what it was. He thought it was a long piece of wood. I said to pull it apart and he nearly dropped it!! He was amazed.FIT: The blade slides into the scabbard easily and when the ferrule (Habaki) enters the scabbard it is a very nice snug fit. There is no ‘looseness’ in the fit and the blade is also snug inside. No rattles of any kind.Overall I am very pleased with this Katana. For the price of $53 you can’t beat it. For those reviewers who said that I ‘was fighting with another sword’ and the blade was all beat up, I have to say this to them; This is NOT a fighting sword, it is a showpiece and that is it’s intended purpose. If you want to practice with another steel blade you have to expect it to get ‘beat up’. It is not a Damascus steel blade otherwise you would be paying upwards of $900 for that kind of blade. You get what you pay for!! With this sword I can say that I feel that I got more than what I paid for. It is worth every dollar. I apologize for the length of this review but I had a lot to say. Thank you for letting me share.

its been a few years since ive bought this. it still sits in my room against the wall awaiting a tresspasser to have the missfortune of interloping upon my sacred lands. it lay there in wait for the blood of the fallen invaders to quench its everlasting thirst.its edge is a bit chipped from using it to attack trees who had looked at me wrong.the handle is very firm.the weight is amazing and balanced.it fits perfectly.it still looks badass and i havent been maintaining it.overall very sturdy and it craves battle.

I'm really pleased with this. The Rosewood exterior looks and feels very nice, I can't tell if it's a veneer over plastic but it does seem like that it was the case. Or maybe the interior is more of a pressed Pope type of composition. But it draws very nicely and it has a good snug close. It does have a fake hamon (sp? Wavy line on edge) on it, but still looks nice.

I'll keep it brief: you get what you pay for with this.Pros: It's pretty sturdy! I gave it a mild stress test of chopping thin branches, and cutting filled bottles and fruit. So far it's endured no damage that I can observe. The sword in its saya is very flush, so it looks pretty pleasing in that regard.Cons: The blade wasn't entirely straight, though that's to be expected with any low-budget sword. The color isn't super appealing in my opinion, though it looks fine enough. Fake hamon is always bleh, but they don't try to mislead the viewer into thinking it's a real hamon on the store page so I can't complain about that too much. It only has one pin, which I know isn't uncommon for katanas but still gives me a bit of paranoia when I use it. The lack of furnishings also means the point of balance is a bit farther towards the tip than I would like, though that's not really uncommon on swords of this type.If you want to skip eating out somewhere with the family and buy a sword with the money saved instead, you can do worse than this one. It's good for padding out your sword collection or chopping stuff up in your yard. For twice the price you can have a much better sword (the Musashi swords), but not everyone has the extra money to spend, and not everyone cares to spend more than this on something that (let's face it) is pretty useless aside from the fun of it.tldr: If you wanna blow $60 on a fun sword that won't break hitting bottles and fruit, go for it! I certainly don't regret buying it! If you're new to swords it's not a bad place to start, though I'd recommend saving up another $60 and buying a Musashi. If your budget is really low though, just get this and enjoy :)

It's a beautiful blade and well made much sturdier than I expected

For the price pretty good. Very sharp so be careful. Simplistic yet pretty.

I was expecting something that was not well built and not put together well. I was wrong on both counts. For the price this is a nicely made sword. I don't think it would hold up well in a sword fight but I get involved in so few of those now that given the price I could just buy a new one afterwards without much of a headache.

Looks great on my wall with my other swords.