It really depends on how much you want to spend and what style you want. If you plan on using it for self defence then you want something fairly durable, such as carbon steel not stainless. I would check out
www.swordforum.com and see if you can't get some solid advice from my friends over there. I've been a member there for about seven years and you find a better source of good blade advice anywhere.
To get you started in the right direction I would suggest looking into the following options.
$50-$150 range: Not much out there I would suggest other than Paul Chen's Practical line of Japanese swords, for the price you can't do much better.
$150-$250 range: Windless Steelcrafts make some very nice medieval swords that are quite rugged. Also historically accurate if youre into that sort of thing, like I am.
$250-$350 range: You'll find a lot of Cold Steel's swords within this price range, including their nasty cutting Hand-And-A-Half Sword, but may be too long to use in an apartment. All their swords come super sharp and would be fine for self-defence. Check out their Warrior Series O-Tanto for around $240 on
www.bytheswordinc.com.
$350+++ range: High-end Cold Steel Japanese swords, high-end Paul Chen, Angus Trim swords and Del Tin's are the leaders here, probably not what youre looking for.
As for length, I would stay short as possible, any blade length over 25" will be hard to use in most apartments, you may as well go with a long bladed knife. If you want an actual sword then I would suggest the something in realm of 13"-18" such as the Cold Steel Moro Borong or the O-Tanto I mentioned earlier. You may also want to look into the "Kukri" its classified more as a knife but some are quite large and would make a great defence weapon in an apartment.
Like I said go to
www.swordforum.com and ask this same question you may get some real good advice from them, they don't talk about guns over there its all blades. Good Luck, hope this helps!
