I have seen a 440c custom bush sword broken at the guard area a real shame a lot of work went into it. I would lean more towards s35vn or s30v i think they are way tougher as far as stainless goes, I would recommend 3-v. A lot of work goes into a sword the last thing you want is it breaking on you.
Thanks for the advise on the green one, something was bugging me about that one and I think you nailed it. I'm also going to grind off those little notches on the pommel area.
It will be fun to test them both and see what a good flogging will bring about in design flaws. I'm having a hard time building a good performing chopper, it's alot harder then building a small knife.