Smart purchase, or bad idea?

[T.G. Oskar]

Holy Christ you know a lot about swords my man. Did you read the wiki, or are you just an enthusiast?

Enthusiast, mostly. I don't know a whole lot (I do look at Wikipedia to corroborate my claims), but I tend to look at other places. Can't say I will always get my claims right, but I tend to be pretty precise on what I can work with.

While I can't say I'm an expert on Materials Engineering, it's one of the few things I like to know about, and that's where I get some of the knowledge I practice. It's quite incomplete (I'd like to go much further than what I know), but it's pretty solid knowledge nonetheless.

Part of what you learn at Engineering Materials is the balance point of most materials. Steel is stronger because of the amounts of carbon making the proper bonds with the iron, and Austensite/Martensite tend to be prized because of their crystalline composition (since how the crystals are composed determine how it'll react against impact and pressure). 420 Stainless Steel is good for show but bad for practical purposes, and 440 is only moderately better in terms of tensile strength, but much better on other areas.

In the end, though, it depends on how it was forged. Cold-treated too much, and the metal becomes brittle; too little, and the metal remains too soft. If not forged properly, metal remains soft on the outside and strong on the inside, so it acts like a wire (it stays bent, which is what Jin proposes; otherwise, with a good hammering and heat-treatment the material becomes flexible) These are points to consider when buying a blade, specifically one that's not hand-forged.

Thanks, Oskar. Yet again, your wisdom surpasses mine, and is amazing.

Uh...well, it's not a very deep analysis, given that the offered information is scarce and I'm mostly using online sources and what little I can remember of Engineering Materials. I'd love to tackle this again and link you to a properly forged version of the Buster Sword, but that'd take a lot of time. The one that's shown has a good design, it's oddly proportional in terms of weight, and my only qualms are the thickness and the lack of a mention of the process (hand-forged, machine-made, and the steps). Thus, it's good for show, but bad for practice; if it's too thin and machine-made, it means you need to take extra care with it (so that the blade doesn't bend).