Tell me more about your sword custmomizing...
Basically, I make hilts and scabbards, if I can find a good quality blade. I've mostly done jian, but I've done a few dao as well. I carve the grip from hardwood, and cast a guard and pommel in bronze, altho I've done a couple in silver. Scabbards are in hardwood as well, with bronze fittings.
These hilt pieces are solid pieces, not the loose, flimsy sheetmetal crap that most of the stuff has. My favorite blades are made by Angus Trim, he does European style swords, but some of his models work well for a jian. He works in 5160 spring steel, the same stuff truck leaf springs are made of. Tough stuff, makes a good blade. Absolutely real weapons.
I've worked with a few heavy weight Lung Chuan dao blades. These are the thick, heavy ones, altho they come in a variety of weights, depending on which Lung Chuan forge made it. I basically find them whereever I can. If I feel the blade is decent, I'll rebuild the hilt. I've only made scabbards for jian, never tried one for a dao. That would be a bit trickier with the wood working, but maybe someday I'll give it a try.
I've been doing the casting at the local community college. I recently bought my own casting equipment, but I've yet to have a chance to try it out. I'm working on a sword now, when the pieces are ready I'll cast them and see how they come out.
You can see pictures of a few examples of my swords in the photo album here on Martialtalk:
http://www.martialtalk.com/gallery/index.php?cat=17260
My hilt designs aren't necessarily based on historical designs. Rather, I am simply interested in creating something that is solid, strong, and functional. So I come up with simple designs that seem to fit this bill. Nothing fancy. These designs sort of keep changing, as I get new ideas in my head, so it's all pretty fluid. Each piece is unique, made to fit the blade and the scabbard. There's nothing interchangeable about them.
I also have a small line of sterling silver pendants, I've got a link to my website in my signature line.
www.flyingcranedesigns.com. Check it out, they are animal-inspired, my wife and I are scuba divers so that's where much of my inspiration comes from. I've got to update my website, I've got a few more designs that arent' on there yet, but a friend of mine helps me out with it and we haven't been able to get together to do it in a while.