[Low-Tech] Material or quality

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Anthony

A heavier weapon increases resistance to your strength, which lets you apply your muscles more efficiently, but there's an upper limit to that, and it also makes the weapon slower.

I think that was the reason for the evolution of the broadsword to rapier to smallsword. A tiny shaft of metal shoved through your guts will kill you just as dead as a sharpened car door. So it often ended up with whoever stabbed fastest.