see also
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX9IF4v3RdU&spfreload=5
today's 'new' sword is tomorrow's antique.
my first 'real' sword was a USCG officer's sword required for my dress uniform. modern frangible stainless, barely a sword, a sword in name only. but gold plated and pretty enough for a parade, pass-in-review or a wedding. not really a weapon, but a statement. i had no real love for it.
i bought my first samurai sword in the 1980's on a visit to japan on the way home from saudi arabia to the USA. it was made a year or so before by one of the then two japanese master swordsmiths designated as 'living treasures', using traditional materials and techniques and cost me a small fortune. had to wait an extra week to get a permit from the govt. there to export it. reproduction? sadly stolen from the relative i left it with while i worked overseas. ther arte some very good smiths out there turning out just as good a weapon as the old stuff.
some new swords are junk, some decent place-holders, some just as good if not better than those of the past. beauty is in the eye of the beholder after all, some here will not touch anything less than a few hundred years old. some are more flexible & eclectic. to each his own.
i cannot now afford the expensive fancy gold plated and bejewelled sharp pointies beloved by many, and make do with the old warhorses that slip thru the cracks, a few sharp modern swords and axes that just might do when the solar flares knock out our modern world.
i'll likely carry this hungarian one (attached), along with a longer sharp pointy or two. too modern for most here, it's got 40 layers of twisted C10+90MnCrV8 top + C10 serrated middle part + 90MnCrV8 serrated cutting edge. i think this will be one of tomorrow's antiques. new isn't necessarily bad, tho this forum is mostly for discussion of the older vintage and antique arms rather than ones that may be in use even as i type somewhere in the world...