Ok so here is my sword, basically finished. I need some criticism/comments on it and help with making it more realistic.
That looks more like a dagger than a sword since the blade is very short comparing to the hilt. I suggest you scale the blade a bit. Also the texture on the hilt looks a bit weird. Orange? What material is it made of? Wood? Looks pretty good I like the guard.:yes:
Hey - that is really a good piece of work - I like the symbols on the blade, and the fantasy themed overall design. If you want realism - I would point you in the direction of some other renders apart from blender’s internal render. I think YAF-RAY or something along those lines would be a good place to start your search.
For metals - reflection is good idea for realism, you may wish to test render some other metalic surfaces before applying this to your sword, especially the edges.
The jewel at the end is good, but I think that you should make it kind of transparent.
All the best and look forward to your updates!
I would consider adding some metal ribbing around the grip, to connect the metal of the cross-guard with the metal of the pommel.
Also, I think the pommel might look a bit better if you scaled down the cup part holding the stone and made the claws around it larger.
Looks nice! I especially like the blade (and its texture!) and the spiky metal cross-guard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sword_parts.svg for sword vocab used in this post.
What do you mean by metal ribbing around the grip?
also, I have some trouble when rendering with Yafray. I’m using Windows 7 64-bit.
For the ribbing … I guess I meant 2 metal bands, going from the crossguard to the pommel, clinging to the grip.
I’m not sure if I explained this very well … if I have some time later, I’ll try to make a sketch or something.
I think I prefer the top right metal, the one used in the picture named “metal1.jpg.”
i think your image would definitely benefit from an HDRI
when you have something with reflections, it’s a good idea to give the scene something for the mirror to reflect.
other than that, it looks nice 
Jeepster is right on, learn how to render with an angmap.
Also your metal needs scratches IMO.
Here is a link to some free images you can use for reflections.
http://www.accustudio.com/index.php?option=com_remository&func=select&id=19&Itemid=54
How do i use the .hdr file with blender?
So here are 5 different textures that I am considering for the handle of the sword. What is your vote?
Attachments
I vote for an environment map with some raytraced reflection. As noobie said all you’re materials should probably be properly UV mapped with some thoughtfully placed imperfections. Make the textures tell a story! Has this sword seen any battle? Was it once pounded into shape with a hammer? If you want realism you have to think about all those things. You also should probably look into some finer detail for the handle like this
I think the blade should be broader and the handle a little shorter.
yafaray doesn’t exist for 64-bit.
get 32-bit blender, 32-bit yafaray, and hope that you don’t get any errors.