Another "evolution" diagram-thing. Of course I could put in some more links and maybe set dates for all of them, but that would be too much work.

1. One of the first swords the Noldor made. Solid piece of metal for the blade and a wooden handle. The blade has a spine/ridge to make it stronger.
2. As the technology got better, the swords would get longer and the decorations nicer. Swirly floral ornaments for the hilt. Still has a ridge on the blade.
3. The hilt became less fancy and the blade is one piece with two ground-out fullers to make it lighter (this way it can be wider).
4. New technology - pattern welding for the blade. In a nutshell, you twist a few rods of iron with different features together and beat/weld them flat. That gives you the core of the blade - it makes the sword flexible and stress-resistant. To that core you weld two edges from hard steel that can take more punishment than iron and cut well. Then you grind a fuller - a groove in the whole blade to make it lighter. If you want to learn more about this, google pattern welding or damascene steel (even though pattern welding is not real damascene steel, the name is still used). The sword has a more straight bulky feel, the technology is still too new to go wild on the blade's shape. Floral ornaments on the hilt feel slightly heavier too.
5. Pattern welded blade with a more elven leaf-like shape. Still with a fairly wide fuller. The hilt is heavily ornamented with swirly floral shapes - trying to renew some of the older designs.
6. Probably a dwarf-made sword. The blade has a very elven shape, but the fuller is less deep and the sword feels a bit heavier. Dwarven hand is more obvious from the shape of the hilt. It still incorporates some leaf shapes though so the owner was probably an elf.
7. A "modern" elven sword. There could probably be one more link to this one from number 5, but I didn't have enough paper.
The hilt has some elements of the movie Glamdring which I didn't realize when I drew it. I thought: "Look at that, that came ou really nice! Weird how easy that was." And obviously, it hit me later. It's not that bad though.