Thanks again for the comments!

arran, The chrome shader being used on the sword model is highly reflective, and even though I have a high reflection blurr on it, the hand guard is still catching the color off the groundplane. I will turn down the reflectivity just a tiny bit, and see if it helps to cut down color It's catching from the ground plane.

Alot of the mediaeval swords were either dull in appearance, or shiny and beautiful. I picked shiny and beautiful.

The long handle is intentional. The handle had to be long because the blades were heavy, and the knights had to hold them with both hands. Here is a few pics of some actual midiaeval swords.