[Gibbon1]

> I'm assuming low quality steel is overly soft rather than overly brittle.

I think there are a lot of ways to not get it right with steel. In a sword hardness and toughness are in conflict. You really want a sword with a hard edge and a tough back. Which implies differing amounts of carbon and temper. Not only that but the grain is very important as well.

A common European way of sword making was to carburize iron rods/wire and then forge weld those into a sword. The outer layer is hard steel which is strong. The inner core is milder tougher. Japanese achieved the same by folding and forge welding. I think there are were a lot of ways to do this but labor intensive, highly skilled work where if you goofed or the starting material was off the result was crummy.

> I got the impression 2 handed swords/no shield was an honour thing,

Not an expert either but I think 2 handed were symbolic/ceremonial/rank artifacts.