You can easily smash a diamond with a hammer, even though the diamond is far harder than a hammer. Aside from that, metals quite often gouge and chip one anoth

You can easily smash a diamond with a hammer, even though the diamond is far harder than a hammer. Aside from that, metals quite often gouge and chip one another, and 100+ year old swords are not automatically stronger or made of better materials than present day pot metal. After a certain point, a sword is more valuable and useful as an art piece than as a weapon outside of emergencies.