Keith Larman

Just a few more thoughts as I was working...

I figured I would weigh a few things. Most suburito aren't really all that heavy compared to a shinken. My favorite white oak suburito is about 2 pounds, 2 ounces. While an average of my bokken is about 1 to 1.5 pounds. So the suburito is about twice the weight give or take.

But I got out two katana, both relatively moderate feeling in the hands and they weighed in at 2 lb, 6 ounces and 2 lb, 4 ounces. Both with iron tsuba so some extra weight there. So they're even heavier than the suburito.

I also pulled out a thinner shinken with sukashi tsuba and bo-hi (grooves). 1.9 pounds. Very light and fast in the hands. But still significantly heavier than my bokken. But lighter than the suburito.

The major difference is the point of balance.

Bokken are very light generally and weight is mostly center balanced. The balance on a katana is much more towards the hands. And the balance on the suburito is more out towards the tip.

Hence the suburito "feels" heavy and hard to move. Leverage. It's all about where the mass is located.

The suburito is tiring to use for any length of time while I could work with the shinken nonstop for the most part.

Just fwiw. And of course there are some truly massive suburito. Although at some point I think it just gets silly.

So I guess I'm saying a 1 kg suburito is about right in my experience. But it isn't the weight that is the issue, it is the balance and distribution.