I must confess I am one of those noobs who show up on the knifemaking scene and say "I'm gonna make a sword!!!!" I have been making knives for about 6 months now, and have broken a couple.
I am trying to make a Greek kopis out of high carbon steel (old rusty wrecking bar) and I would like to know if these warnings of "Don't do it unless you know what you're doing" apply to short swords and machete style stuff.