The iron sword is used by bandits and can have green and blue versions that have upgrades.
Green upgrades can be things like fire damage and blue can absorb damage and give you HP.
The base damage is 4.3 green is 5 and blue is 5.7
The player also starts the game with a iron sword.
it is best used with a shield and the left mouse swing is good for hitting 2 or 3 foes at the same time while the right click lunge attack is good for making ground between you and your foes and breaking the guard of a single foe.
It does more damage then the crude axe and puts you at a advantage if you are fighting foes that are using the crude axe or a iron sword with less upgrades then yours.