We are no longer in an era of honor, so we must be very careful with what we buy. There is a huge slew of "battle-ready" swords that can be used for "re-enactments". They claim that these swords are made of generally really great steels, but keep in mind that many Filipino, Malaysian and Indian-made swords do not have very good heat-treating, and thus the resulting blades are but a shadow of the steel they are made from, and against someone with a well-made sword, you might not have a chance. In fact, your resulting sword might be no better than a stainless steel replica even though the original steel was superior!

Sales babble may throw you off, so I want you guys to make sure you're not getting misled in your shopping.

Catalogs and web pages feature swords using words like:

High Carbon Steel
High Carbon Spring Steel
Live Steel

These terms are all synonymous. All the various carbon steels are very similar. Some retailers have begun using the term, "high carbon stainless steel". The bottom line is that stainless steel is still stainless steel, and is inferior as a sword-blade steel because of the weakening effects of chromium. So it doesn't matter how much carbon you put into it, since adding carbon to a Hyundai doesn't make it a Ferrari!