Just ran across the Pirela Blade Design folks, who design and sell an amazing array of beautiful knives through famous custom makers. Guys like Greg Lightfoot, Allen Elishewitz, and Mick Strider. Don't know how I missed seeing this outfit earlier, esp. now that I've been following Peter Atwood's projects for some time now.
If they ever make the movie version of Snow Crash, they've gotta use some of these babies in the fight scenes. Somehow that carbonfiber laminate katana looks much more stylish than Blade's overdone Sword of the Day Walker.
Hiro's sword:
Strider's industrial-strength crash axe goes metrosexual:
Style and substance:
Blade Art: