what is the best type of steel to look for in a sword, when browsing around to buy one?

It's far more important to find a maker who knows what they're doing in terms of the craft, be they a custom or production outfit. Most will have their own preference as to material and as long as they know what to do with it the end product should be satisfactory.

oh, well that makes sense. i just noticed stuff like "high carbon steel" and a bunch of different stuff. what does all that stuff mean when its talking about X type swords or Z type swords, ect.? i dont quite understand that.

10/75 and 51/60 are popular as is L6

High Carbon is a popular catch phrase. The "catch" is that unless its heat treated, and done so properly it means nothing. "High Carbon Steel" means basically that its a steel with enough carbon content to be heat treated. Stated in a REALLY basic way steel is iron with more carbon in it, but unless steel has a certain level of carbon or above it can't be heat treated. It will still be steel and harder than iron but not capable of being manipulated with heat to become harder still. High carbon steel (upper 10 steels, high alloys like 5160, L6, W1 and the like) can be manipulated with heat and cooling agents in a very controlled process to become much harder. Without going through this process they confere little if any benefit (sp) in construction over low carbon or mild steel. As Patrick mentioned the important thing is that the smith knows what they're doing and is familiar and comfortable with the steel in which they choose to work. There are custom and high end production makers working in all the steels mentioned so far in this thread and thier work in these various steels are all of outstanding quality.

Type X, etc. is the Oakeshott classification for the sword. It has to do with the sword style, not the steel type.

-James

The best steel is of course Holywoodium!!! :lol:

And now seriously-what do you think about damascus steel?Are there any advantages over homogeniuos material?

Dr J. Chrisoulas\' book \\\"The complete bladesmith\\\" has a nice introductory section on steels that are useable for blades: for each of them he provides the ideal kind of temper as well as pros and cons.

As you will see the tempering method as well as the forming method of the blade have a great deal of importance in achieving good results.

So a good steel will be behaving badly under stress if not properly heat treated: and that is what separates decent and good companies from bad ones.

See also www.swordforum.com for advivce, there are however too many discussions over there , try to find a getting started thread.

I've not much more to add as others have already stated: pattern welding has no discernable advantages over monosteel other than aesthetics. That being said, there are some spectacular examples of very beautiful pattern welded blades. I offer this as an example: The Flower Wharncliffe by Johan Gustafsson. The degree of control to produce the patterns is, to my mind, simply astounding as is the smith's ability to produce such vivid colors!

http://www.bladegallery.com/shopexd.asp?id=84...0440312461

The best type of metal for a sword is mithril! Sorry, I couldn't resist. :D ;)

Anyhow, from my research the best steel for a sword is one that has been forged carefully, and by carefully I mean the smith ensured that slag and other impurities are absent as possible from the blade. Slag can weaken a sword and cause it to become vulnerable to breaking.