This may be an odd question, but from a collecting standpoint, does sharpening a blade devalue a sword? To clarify, I'm talking about having an edge put on a reproduction by the manufacturer. If I wanted to sell the sword later, does this make it less desirable (assuming someone wanted it in the first place :) ).

It depends on the what type of sword it is and the potential buyers preference. If you are trying to sell to live steel reanacters they obviously wont want a sharpened blade. On the other hand, a person might want to do cutting tests with it. Also certain companies blades, like windlass, are to thin at the edge for live steel so having it sharpened wouldn't effect the value. Companies like Deepeka however make thick blades for combat rather than cutting, so sharpening would be futile and destroy the value

Well Tom covered most of the basics so I won't repeat that but will add glad to hear that your sending it to the manufacturer to have it sharpened. If they do it then it is less likely to hurt the re-sale value of the sword, and it may help depending on the sword in question.
Doing it your self unless you have some idea what to do and really, really take your time and do a good job will hurt the value. Personally I have a hard enough time sharpening knives I would hate to see what damage I could do trying to sharpen a sword.

Overkill, but you might want to consider getting the sword unsharpened and have it done by a true profesional. The company will just send it through a grinder for a few seconds. In fact, some companies are so bad that you have to resharpen it anyway!

Thanks for the insight, Tom and Joel. The sword I'm referring to is a Del Tin 2163 that I purchased and had edged by MRL in 1992 (it seemed like that the only place to buy a sword back then). I really like the sword, but as seven-year olds and razor-sharp claymores don't mix, I'm probably going to be parting with it (it's too big to lock up with my other ones). Hopefully there's someone out there who wants an edged claymore, but doesn't want to go the the hassel of sharpening nearly eight feet of steel! :lol:

Well generally speaking sharpening doesn´t decrease value...and a good sharpening job can get you a bit more money actually (not what you would pay to get it done for you mind you). Anyways if you got the sharpening done my MRL 7 years ago, that may hurt re-sale. For one, they did an absolutely piss poor job back then...and second, they did a bad enough job that they damaged the temper of some of the swords they sharpened. I have personally seen one where part of the blade was hot blued from the heat of their sharpening.

I had three swords sharpened by MRL in 1990. They were all beveled edges that were cleanly and evenly done with no discoloration or other readily apparent flaws. Two of them held up quite well for a couple of years against plastic bottles and sub 1" saplings. At that point, I could have easily restored the MRL edge myself, with a stone, but I found a local artisan who did nice appleseed edges. The third has seen so little use that it still has the MRL edge.