My first sword - any suggestions?

That's a little disappointing about the price of European type swords. I'm a little new to this though, and am curious about something. What is the difference between the Koga Ninja sword I referred to and the Musashi sword eques referred me to?

Aside from different styles, I think the Konga is through hardened while the kat Eques referenced is differentially hardened.
I prefer a through hardened blade myself while others disagree.
Keep in mind these swords have cheap fittings and while I find them a good value for mucking around out back for grins, they may not suit the discriminating collector.

Seems, you beat me to it, John. I would be careful with blanket statements tho. My Musashi Wind Dragon is through hardened at around eighty bucks.

I apologize for the blanket statement I guess that's what I get for just checking the prices on one store. I'll look more into things before I speak next time.

BTW did they discontinue the wind dragon I have not seen one around or am I just oblivious or am I missing something.

Windlass 1860 Light Cavalry sabre isn't a bad sword.
A: Must be right handed
B: Scabbard will dull the blade
C: The wire grip isn't the most comfertable.

I'm pretty sure wiwingti sword supply has the Agincourt for 90. Also the War Sword would work too. Here's a link:http://www.wiwingtiswordsupply.com/iberialine.html

actually wiwingti is in canada
kult of athena is in the USA,
I have found that KOA almost always has a better price and lower shipping, I have also found KOA to have far superior customer service to anywhere else, and you cant beat some of their sale prices and scratch and dent bargains,

That Kindjal is looking like something more in my pricerange. It also is looking to be more in proportion with my muscle mass (or lack thereof). Right now I'm trying mostly to decide between that or the hand and a half sword. Would the hand and a half sword be better at cutting or does the +$50 come from the fact that the it's far longer, has a fuller, and has nicer furniture?

Edit: I also considered buying the blade for a little while but it came to me that I have almost none of the required skill or tools required to make furniture for a sword. Unless it's extremely easy, which would not appear to be the case.

Andernerd: The 50 dollar difference between the kindjal and the bastard sword basically boils down to the amount of material used. Both are finished peices of metal, but the hand and a half sword just has more metal.

(About to go on a slippery slope)

If you are gonna go with the hand and a half sword from hanwei, you might as well keep on saving for their ... oh, nevermind. Kult of Athena stopped the sale on the Hanwei fullered/unfullered bastard and longswords. They used to be down around 130 bucks, and they are A LOT of sword for the buck. Even now that they are back up at 180, they are still a good sword, but I digress.

I haven't heard anything about Hanwei's 110 dollar European sword line, but I'd imagine that it was one of their first and have some handeling issues.

So were you going to use this sword for cutting? You had mentioned it matching a hauberk (which by the way, I'd like to see some pics off, sounds really interesting). Were you planning on going to Ren Faires and the like, or did you just think it'd be silly not having a matching blade for display.

Basically, I attend an annual Scandinavian Festival at a nearby town. I thought I would make myself some maille and actually arrive at least partially in costume for once. I'm not anywhere near finished, but what I have now still looks pretty cool. I don't have a camera, so I can't really take a picture of it at the moment. I might be able to do that later though. Anyways, that is about half of why I want a European style sword. Bonus points if it resembles something a viking might have used, but not really a necessity.