The broadsword description is based on the description given in SR4A:
Monofilament Sword: This well-balanced broadsword features superfine monofilament wire attached to its edges.
I think there's a lot of room for determining the design aesthetic of any weapon you get though. Even more so if you personalize it.
+1 to this. As often as I see posts regarding people wanting weapon/vehicle creation, I think many times a simple description of your weapon can suffice. How many light pistols are there that are statistically identical? Yet, just because an official book has come out with a new name for one, often without a supporting image, we accept that they are different. If I want my street sam to use some specific weapon, then I'll buy the closest thing and describe it in such a way as to make it clear. Also, and perhaps I've been fortunate here, gm's have always been open to me creating items that I've wanted, so long as they had approval of the item/process.
I think this is where the SR community shines, and how the devs have been fairly open. We want something, so we make it. And it certainly seems, off this board and community, that they listen when we talk.
This is digressing some from the original point made, but there you go. Anyway, I like melee weps in SR, and even though some people say they get no love or are under powered/broken, I guess in my experience combat has been secondary. Even though in one of my games the sprawl ganger uses a baseball bat to "negotiate". We do it in such a way that it doesn't matter what you hit em with, the best part is finding out how you GET to the hitting. So, flavor of the campaign and character overrules stats, any day, in my book. Does that make sense, at all?