OT: list of swords or yeah right, a guy who's barely played any RPG is gonna make one

[Puke]

So, Narf, what EXACTLY are you trying to do?

Theres alot of guess work here, and the kind of information that is usefull to you will depend widely on if you want it for historical research, to play a game, or what.

theres information from armorers and weapon smiths that recreate real weapons, and others that make spiffy 'fake' weapons from fantasy settings that look cool but have no practical function.

there is information about historical weapons, but it should be best aproached from the angle of a specific culture and aimed at a specific aspect of the weapon, such as metalurgy or function or what. otherwise there will be too many variables to make any kind of research accurate.

if its for a game, hell, there are supliments for every fantasy game out there, detailing all kinds of nuts-o weapons. some of them tend to be more realistic, others just handwave realism or historical acuracy away, in favor or play balance and fun.