Howard Clark's site,
www.mvforge.com seems to be down right now, but his premier blade is one I will own if I ever purchase anything of the sort:
http://www.bugei.com/product_241_detailed.htm
The price listed is naturally wrong ($0.00) Clark's site mentions a total approaching 7000 grand when delivered as fully polished and mounted. I think the metal is close to that of 1086 in composition, (what most 'functional swords' are made of) or so I believe, but check clark's site above for better detail. The one thing I do recall is that it is a metal alloy/forging process that was simply not possible until the last 50 years or so. One of those, "if they could have, they would have" type things.
A great review of Howard Clark's work is seen on the following page:
http://swordforum.com/summer99/howardclark.html
From all accounts (not just the above) this seems like something worth waiting for.
michael.