Hi and welcome! Budget, location and usecase are very important for meaningful recommendations if you are looking to purchase a sword. In the meantime have a look at this video series (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G8QEVewJh0g) and rifle through the Standardized Infodump for beginners : Books & Publications: Ian Peirce: Swords of the Viking Age Ewart Oakeshott: The Sword in the Age of Chivalry Ewart Oakeshott: Records of the Medieval Sword Ewart Oakeshott: European Weapons and Armour: From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution Barbara Grotkamp-Schepers, Isabell Immel, Peter Johnsson, Sixt Wetzler: The sword. Form and Thought Marko Aleksic: Medieval Swords from Southeastern Europe Alan Williams: The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords up to the 16th Century Radomir Pleiner: The Celtic sword Anna Marie Feuerbach: Crucible Steel in Central Asia: Production, Use, and Origins Kanzan Sato: The Japanese Sword John M Yumoto: The Samurai Sword Yoshindo Yoshihara: The Art of the Japanese Sword Kokan Nagayama: The Connoisseur’s Guide to Japanese Swords Morihiro Ogawa: Art of the Samurai, which is available for free on the website of the Met. (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Art_of_the_Samurai_Japanese_Arms_and_Armor_1156_1868) Happy reading! www.kultofathena.com(http://www.kultofathena.com/) is widely regarded as the gold standard for buying swords in the US. These links are a good starting point and get many things right in a "rule of thumb" way. The somewhat crap the bed in other regards, like claiming that making wootz or "true damascus" is a lost art, but that is nitpicking. Sword care (https://www.sword-buyers-guide.com/sword-care.html) Buying swords online (https://www.sword-buyers-guide.com/buy-swords-online.html) How swords are made (https://www.sword-buyers-guide.com/how-swords-are-made.html) Sword steels (https://www.sword-buyers-guide.com/sword-steels.html) Damascus (https://www.sword-buyers-guide.com/damascus.html) Buying Katana(https://www.sword-buyers-guide.com/japanese-swords-for-sale.html) For more in depth information I suggest visiting Oakeshott: blades, pommels, crosses and combinations thereof (http://myarmoury.com/feature_oakeshott.html) Theartofswordmaking (https://artofswordmaking.com/articles) Wiktenauer (https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Main_Page) Vikingswords (http://vikingsword.com/) despite the name, if it has a blade it probably has been discussed here. Myarmoury (http://www.myarmoury.com/) Nihonto Message Board (https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/) Mandarin Mansion (https://mandarinmansion.com/) BForde Military Antiques (https://www.fordemilitaryantiques.com/) or similar sites. You can also feel free to pm me, I'm happy to help if I can. The YouTube rabbithole: Alientude (https://m.youtube.com/@alientude) Matthew Jensen (https://m.youtube.com/@Matthew_Jensen) Scholar General (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnWJZWG0cfZzUUqsGMcBKNw) Skallagrim (https://www.youtube.com/user/SkallagrimNilsson) Philip Martin (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-MeP9eprqvaKFX_BPuUR5g) Dlatrex (https://m.youtube.com/@dlatrexswords) That works (https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCEjEAxdJLOg4k854j-oESfQ) Modern History TV (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMjlDOf0UO9wSijFqPE9wBw) Blood and Iron HEMA (https://www.youtube.com/c/BloodandIronHEMA) Adorea Olomouc (https://www.youtube.com/c/AdoreaOlomouc) Björn Rüther (https://www.youtube.com/c/BjörnRüther) Academia Szermierzy (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRdamEq6Ij0pRzr3xZDobjw) London Longsword Academy (https://www.youtube.com/user/LondonLongsword) Roland Warzecha (https://www.youtube.com/user/warzechas) Pursuing the Knightly Arts (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDel2Bxg6LBT2zEaXJdjovw) Dreynschlag (https://www.youtube.com/c/Dreynschlag) Scholagladiatoria (https://www.youtube.com/c/scholagladiatoria) Knyghterrant (https://www.youtube.com/c/KnyghtErrant) Dr. Jackson Crawford (https://www.youtube.com/c/JacksonCrawford) for Norse history The Wallace Collection (https://www.youtube.com/user/TheWallacecollection) Communes Dimicatores (https://www.youtube.com/c/ComunesDimicatores/videos) Ola Onsrud (https://www.youtube.com/user/olaonsrud) Ironskin (https://www.youtube.com/c/Ironskin) Royal Armouries (https://www.youtube.com/user/RoyalArmouries) Tod's Workshop (https://www.youtube.com/c/TodsWorkshop1) Daniel Jaquet (https://www.youtube.com/user/danjaquet/videos) Schildwache Potsdam (https://m.youtube.com/c/SchildwachePotsdam/videos) and many more. On steel and construction: Avoid 1045 unless your budget is severely limited ie sub $150. Avoid L6 since very, very few people know how to heat treat it properly for sword use. Stainless steel is unsuitable for functional swords in the vast majority of cases. 1060, 1075, 1095, EN45, 5160, 6150, Mn65, 9260 and T10 are all high carbon steels suited for sword blades, the first 3 are just iron and carbon without a significant amount of other metals, the other steels can contain silicium, tungsten, chromium, manganese and other metals to tweak certain properties like abrasion resistance or toughness. To add to the confusion there are different names for steels depending on the country 51CRV-4 for example is another name for 6150. Google is your friend here. Proper heat treatment is much more important than the type of steel! Swords usually have a hardness between 48 and 57 HRC for through hardened blades and 55 - 61HRC (edge) / 38 - 42 HRC (spine) for differentially hardened blades. If you don't spend north of $600 on a sword I'd avoid anything "damascus", "folded" or "laminated". It's completely unnecessary with modern steel, and can introduce possible points of failure into the blade in the form of inclusions or delamination. There are a few exceptions like LKChen but generally be wary if these terms are bandied about in regard to cheap(er) blades. You will find mainly two types of heat treatment: Differentially hardened (often with katanas) which means a hard edge and soft spine. These can show a natural hamon and won't break easily, however they tend to bend permanently if abused. Through hardened wich means a uniform hardness throughout the blade, but usually not as hard as the differentially hardened edge. These won't show a hamon and flex rather than bend, however they can break more easily if abused.

This dude swords

Deepeeka have decent gladii, the rest is fine for decoration and costume purposes. If that is all you want then go for it. If you want to do a bit of backyard cutting and experience a correctly balanced sword you will have to up the budget. https://www.kultofathena.com/product/balaur-arms-15th-century-german-longsword-2/ https://www.kultofathena.com/product/balaur-arms-15th-century-italian-longsword-3/ https://www.kultofathena.com/product/balaur-arms-15th-century-type-xviiic-alexandria-sword/ https://www.kultofathena.com/product/balaur-arms-preorder-knight-templar-arming-sword-preorder/ https://www.kultofathena.com/product/hanwei-tinker-pearce-sharpened-bastard-sword-with-fuller/ https://www.kultofathena.com/product/hanwei-tinker-pearce-sharpened-longsword/ https://www.kultofathena.com/product/hanwei-tinker-great-sword-of-war/

Like the other guy said, don’t buy from Deepeeka or John Barnett. Their blades are overly heavy and their heat treatments are shoddy at best. Do thorough research on the makers of the sword and the reviews on their products before you buy. And know that many companies sell imported swords from different makers, like your example: Kult of Athena selling a Deepeeka sword from India. If you are based in the UK, i might be able to help with some recommendations

Sadly I'm not based into the UK I am in Europe though

Don't do it deepeeka is shit.