Looks like a good place for cylinders and torii!

If I were you, I'd start with a long thin cylinder, like maybe

cylinder {
<0,0,0>,<0,0,1>,.1
}

And set up the camera to look at it at an angle similar to your reference
image. Then tweak the position and radius of it until it closely matches the
shape you're trying to duplicate. (I recommend starting with just the handle
and worrying about the blade later on.)

Once you have the base cylinder, start adding objects to it. You'll want to
look up the cylinder and torus objects, as I mentioned, and maybe the box
object too. Make sure you understand basic transformations (scaling,
translating, and rotating). In the meantime, just put them all inside a
union{ ... } with a pigment{rgb 1} just so you can see it. Make sure you've
got a light source in there somewhere.

You'll also need to know CSG; this is well described in the documentation.

I'm giving you the real basics here 'cause I never keep track of names in
this newsgroup and I don't know how skilled you are with the program yet =)
Don't be offended if I'm talking down to you. When in doubt, hit the little
button that says "Scene" on the toolbar.

(BTW: as for the blade itself, try a merge of a long thin cylinder and a
sphere at the end of it to round it off, and make it hollow and use emitting
media inside it with the cylindrical pattern.)

 - Slime
[ http://www.slimeland.com/ ]

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