Munetoshi T-10 Performance Cutter Review

Introduction
    
    I got a sword for Christmas, but it was not the sword that I ordered. Someone’s mistake made me a happy camper.

I ordered a Munetoshi Viper Unokubi-Zukuri in green ito from Swords of the East in mid-November, (I was able to get it for 15% off). I didn’t call to ask if they had it in stock before ordering, but I wasn’t too concerned with waiting a little bit if I had to. After waiting until mid-January, I got a bit antsy and was calling them/emailing a few of their different addresses without any luck. I tried both over a few times. I started to get a little pissed, because I didn’t care if the sword was back-ordered but the least someone could give me was any sort of answer or pick up the phone. I sent a “final” email to every address they had listed on their website detailing that I wanted answers or a refund, and lo-and-behold, I get a reply that day. They told me that the sword was out of stock initially, but they recently got a shipment in and they’ll send it right away. It arrived a couple days later and when I open it up, it isn’t a viper, it’s a T-10 performance cutter in green ito (which is a much more expensive sword). So that’s what I’ll be doing this review on. The certificate they included in the box is for a viper though, so I’m a bit confused on that front. Sorry for the long story, just thought context would be interesting here.


Historical overview

    Brand new sword, and you all know what katana are by now. Nuff said.


Full Disclosure

    I’ve seen some reviews for this sword on YouTube, but not on the forum. Also, the stock pics for this sword on most vendor sites are kind of meh. I figure more pics and my experience with this seller would be helpful to potential buyers.

I am in no way an expert and do not claim to know all that much, I just like sharing information and details with people. I’m just a hobbyist collector/backyard cutter.
All other relevant info I put in the introduction.


Initial Impressions

    Confused that it wasn’t the right sword, but ecstatic when I saw what it really was! My main idea for buying this sword was an easy cutter/everyday beater, and this thing really delivers. It came in a large cardboard box, and in that, a large Styrofoam box. At first glance everything looked very nice!


Statistics

Blade Geometry: Shinogi Zukuri
Blade Materials: DH T-10
Blade Length:                        Advertised: 28 in,            Received: 27.9375 in (Nagasa)
Handle/Tsuka Length:             Advertised: 10.5 in,         Received: 10.5 in (not including fuchi)
Blade Width & Thickness: 0.4 in wide, 0.25 in thick (mune at base of blade)
Overall Length: 39.5 inches
Tsuba Thickness: 0.125 in, (or 1/8 in)
POB (Point of Balance): About 6.25 in from the tsuba
Weight: 2 lbs 2 oz,    2 lbs 15 oz (with saya)


Components:



The Blade/Nagasa:
    
    The blade profile is wide and thin, which is what I’ve come to expect from most tameshigiri/cutting geometries. The blade is mirror polished, with a faint, but nice looking gunome hamon that flattens out a bit in the middle of the blade. The yokote is counter polished/cosmetic, but looks decent. Overall the blade is uniform without any bends or noticeable imperfections, and is sharp enough to cut paper everywhere except for the first couple inches from the tsuba.





The Handle/Tsuka:



The tsuka feels good in my hands, and has a nice taper/hourglass shape, however it is a tiny bit thinner than what I prefer, but is shaped well overall. The ito is fairly tight and alternating, and will move slightly as I apply pressure to it. I can move the menuki a little bit by pushing around on them, but they have stayed in place through the cutting and practicing that I’ve done with it so far. The end knots hold the kashira on tightly as well, it will just barely move it if I really push hard on it.

The samegawa is subpar, one side it looks decent, regular sized nodules, hard, no exposed wood. On the other side it looks like they used a different piece of ray skin over two of the diamonds (it sort of sticks up above the rest of the skin) and it is of poorer quality than the other pieces. Also, the same is slightly “dirty” looking in some spots on an otherwise very white and difficult to photograph skin. The mekugi are double pins, that appear to be bamboo and they look well assembled.

The ledges between the ito and the fittings are actually very impressive, they’re virtually nonexistent. Lastly, the diamonds are all decently similar sized and even overall, but it could definitely be better.



The Guard/Tsuba:



The tsuba is advertised as brass and it looks to be that way, it has sort of a dark bronze colored patina to it and looks pretty good for the most part with its simplistic design, however I will say that it is smaller than what I would like in both thickness and diameter. I’ll include here that after cutting around with this sword a bit, the top seppa is now loose.

The habaki is a bright plain brass and has a notch on the ha side (I’ve noticed this on a couple of Munetoshi’s swords), but it fits tightly and the blade is centered.


Fuchi-Kashira, menuki:

The fuchi and kashira are also the darkened brass and although they’re pretty simplistic/minimalist, they’re pretty well done with no noticeable defects. After I observed the loose seppa, I checked for loose fittings on everything, and If I push hard from side to side, there’s a tiny bit of play in the fuchi, however it doesn’t seem like more than a millimeter and it doesn’t make noise or visibly move on its own. I also seem to remember everything being tight before I started using it, but maybe I just didn’t check well enough. The menuki are small flowers and pretty decent in their image quality. I like that they are gold in the middle and silver on the ends.



The Saya:

The saya is pretty wide in shape to match the wider profile of the blade and is lacquered evenly. The koiguchi has black buffalo horn around it, but that’s it for horn on the saya. The sageo wasn’t loose but not what I would call tight by any means. It was able to shift it around quite a bit so I re-tied it. The shitodome on the kurikata are easily pulled off/loose, so I’m probably going to glue them in, as re-wrapping the sageo was a pain having to deal with getting those on separately. The sageo is decently long though and is advertised as chemical fiber. It matches the ito pretty well, but it’s a little shinier/lighter.

The habaki fits into the saya really nicely, and there isn’t any direct rattle when shaking the sword around, but I have noticed that if I set it down fast with the blade in the saya I get a tiny bit of vibration noise that sounds like its coming from closer to the tip of the blade.



Handling Characteristics:

The un-fullered bulkiness of this blade makes itself known, but is definitely still handleable and agile. The balance feels good. The only thing I would change is making the tsuka a tiny bit longer and a decent amount thicker to make controlling the blade a little more manageable for my “average to large” sized hands.

It cuts SO well, I haven’t used any hard targets, and I don’t really intend to, but everything so far feels very precise and is easy enough that the sword just glides through with its own momentum. It really puts a smile on my face. Even when I let my friends who insisted on using baseball bat grips and full force swings try it out, they were able to accurately and easily cut with it. (They then proceeded to gloat about how much “better” at it they were than me).

So far I’ve cut about 30 various water jugs/bottles, 30 pieces of hard Styrofoam, and a few cardboard boxes (I’d advise against using Styrofoam or cardboard if you don’t want your blade getting scratched up), with no noticeable edge deformation or sharpness loss.





Conclusions:

Pros
- It cuts like a razorblade

- Fittings, tsuka, & saya, all well made for the most part

- Looks nice, even though it’s a designed cutter, it still gets “oohs and ahhs”

Cons
- Loose seppa and fuchi

- Samegawa is pretty meh in execution

- Tsuba just seems too small



The Bottom Line

    I got this sword essentially for $200 off, which is a major score in my book. But if I were rating it at its base price, I would say it’s worth the money for a cutting practitioner looking to get a nice mat-cutting geometry blade for a relatively cheap price. As with any sword that isn’t worth the big bucks, there can be improvements, but all around, this thing really hits its mark, and I would recommend it to someone if cutting is what they want to get into.

For the vendor, I have to say, I’m glad someone messed up so I could be this lucky, but I didn’t hear from SOTE for almost 3 months (granted it was over the holidays), but there was a solid week period where I called them every day during their available hours and no one would pick up the phone. They also didn’t respond back after leaving messages and emails with contact info. Once they finally did answer though they were helpful, so take that as you will.


Thanks for reading, let me know if you have any questions or want more pictures and I’ll answer/post them the best I can.
-Metal