On a tangent, for serious closeup work you should keep an eye out for a used bellows. Scroll down this page to see what I am talking about
http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources/nikon_articles/other/close-up_macro/macro_8a.html
With a bellows and a reversed lens you can fill the entire frame with, say, the edge of a quarter. Far beyond the capabilities of a "macro" lens.
I have a Canon FD bellows I used to play with. Such micro-photography had no practical application for me, but for your sword site it would be useful.
If you get a Nikon DSLR, it may be possible to use an old Nikon bellows. I know the higher-level Nikon DLSRs are able to meter with the older manual-focus Nikkor lenses, while the lower-level Nikon DSLRs cannot. I am not sure if this also applies to a bellows. I think asking around at a photo site like photo.net would be the way to find out.
Per eBay, used Nikon bellows are quite affordable.