What do you all consider to be the best sword material(for a live blade), I'm thinking about carbon steel, but I'm still not sure.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Cheeseball_IV:
What do you all consider to be the best sword material(for a live blade), I'm thinking about carbon steel, but I'm still not sure.[/QUOTE]

Well, that's a given...

Just checkin' Nothing wrong with making sure is there?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Cheeseball_IV:
Just checkin' Nothing wrong with making sure is there?[/QUOTE]

Not at all--especially if you are new to swords, sword arts, & sword collecting. The more questions, the better.

Howard Clark makes a sword called an L6 out of "Bainite" which is a new metal and supposedly the best out there.

Crystaline Damascus steel. A sword needs two items, flexibility to not shatter (why you do not cut it from diamond) and hardness to hold an edge and do damage (why you do not make it out of pure iron). A skilled smith can make almost any carbon/iron ratio that he needs, but as he increases flexibility, it decreases hardness.

There are many ways to cheat this, such as differential tempering (the edge is harder than the spine, as on traditional Japanese swords), but the most effective way is what is known as damascus steel. You can tell damascus by its characteristic patterned design. The best explaination I have read is at Angelsword (I would also recomend their swords if you are willing to pay their prices).

[This message has been edited by Benjamin1986 (edited 10-18-2004).]

Bennyboy, you sound like you know something about swords... but I wouldn't believe everything you see on Angelswords. Hanwei and Bugei offer much more traditional (and better looking) swords for much less. In my opinion these also will cut better as well (stronger), look who wins all the competitions. As far as bainite goes it might be the wave of the future check it out.
http://www.nihontopic.com/bainiteclp2.wmv

[QUOTE]Originally posted by gregfalck:
Bennyboy, you sound like you know something about swords... but I wouldn't believe everything you see on Angelswords. Hanwei and Bugei offer much more traditional (and better looking) swords for much less. In my opinion these also will cut better as well (stronger), look who wins all the competitions. As far as bainite goes it might be the wave of the future check it out.
http://www.nihontopic.com/bainiteclp2.wmv
[/QUOTE]

I'm admittedly not too crazy myself about Angelsword's non-historical and quasi-historical designs, but I can tell you that Daniel Watson's swords are second to none when it comes to cutting ability.

That's an interesting assertion. On what do you base that opinion?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Charles Mahan:
That's an interesting assertion. On what do you base that opinion?[/QUOTE]

I base it on having seen how well his swords can cut various things.