dispelling Myths about medieval Combat

[Tartar Horde]

That seems to be the general consensus for Cold Steel regarding videos, and to be honest anyone who knows anything about sword dynamics will understand that a "Cutting" video is, and can be very misleading to a novice who knows nothing about swords. I would never buy any Damascus Sword from a mainstream factory, as I have no faith in their ability to produce a top product as compared to a Swordsmith. The ONLY Cold Steel sword that has any "respect" from Swordies is their 1796 Light Cavalry Sabre, as this is far and away the best Sword they make. Which doesn't surprise me as the Euro blades are made in India, and the Sabre is modeled on the Indian Talwar. Which by the way you can buy all over India made by genuine smiths. You bring up some important points here TL, as it is a minefield for anyone wanting to start Sword, as you really only have a handful of companies who have the major share of production and advertising. Cold Steel use 1055 (so they say) for their swords, but knowing India they probably have trucks bringing old leaf springs in the back door as they are used universally all over India to make blades
The accepted notion by the majority of people is that Swords have to be as sharp as possible with the ability to cut through anything (just like the movies). This leads to them being too hard and brittle, and although they will be fantastically sharp the cutting edge will eventually fail. Worse can happen as this video shows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci_5JxXdU04