Hardness of Steel: The Rockwell scale
The Rockwell scale characterizes the indentation hardness of materials through the depth of penetration of an indenter under a major load on a material sample and compared to the penetration made by a minor load.(this is the short Wiki definition)
Now the Hardness of Steel in swords can be a tad misleading. One will see a sword with a Rockwell Hardness of say 55. Now that is a good hardness rating for a blade, HOWEVER, if the whole blade is a hardness of 55 it better be a real short one, like a knife. other wise you try to clash that thing with anything and it will most likely fracture and break. A good tempered Sword will have a relatively softer middle(springy) and a hard edge(to hold the sharpness). Most traditionally made japanese swords have this characteristic where they are folded many times to get that springy and durable feel to them(so they can stand up to cutting armour and flesh and clashing with other blades) the outer edge of the sword will; be harder than the inner body so that it can hold an edge.
IN the case of your Sword, No_surrender, they say the blade is folded and has a hardness rating of 55. Well, How many times is the blade folded? prolly just once or twice(for the price of that blade reflects how much went into the manufactoring of that particular blade) as for the hardness, i refer back to the original query i had about (if the whole blade is a hardness of 55 then it will be more brittle and prone to break if it is longer than say 10 inches) Also you gotta figure what kind of Metal is being used to make the sword.
Most places are using scrap metal(which can be good depending on the metal) Kris Cutlery,if i am not mistaken, is using the spring shocks off of Jeeps and other ATV's(all terrain vehicles) That metal is actually really good to use and they dont have to fold the metal or temper it too much. they just need to grind out a shape and do some other stuff to it( i tested mine once on an old box spring mattress) cut right through the wood and a few of the springs in the mattress in the first swipe,about 8 inches in) i pulled the blade out and the edge wasnt even damaged. thats how i knew that i had a good sword. If you go to the Windlass steel crafts site they have a video you can watch on how they make their weapons. its pretty cool.
IN retrospect, all this rambling doesnt change the fact that we dont fight with swords anymore and so wanting to have a sword to practice with,you can either spend your money on a collectors work of art,or you can spend not so much money on something that will at least stay together when you whip it around.
Im a sword nerd so i am going to be nerdy about it all and go for the collectors piece.
Peace,TWS
It makes me mad when people say I turned and ran like a scared rabbit. Maybe it was like an angry rabbit, who was going to fight in another fight, away from the first fight.