Many of the cooler Descriptive items, are vastly over shadowed by the simple over achievement of the damage yields of the crafted Items.
If per say, the craftable weapons were scaled to +1, +2, or +3 damages, as opposed to a die adder, now those "in game" items with the die adder of blunt/slashing/piercing, or elemental damage types, become worth what the system would sell them for.
My Gripe with that sword, isn't the weight, or the -1 AC. Those are good RP hooks. The -3 AB, is more then a bit steep. Also, it's Pure Iron. Where's the bonus vs Outsiders and other critters affected by Iron? That's something that can be addressed. There just seems to be some possibilities there that are missing.
If it's -1 AC, and weighs 25 pounds, that's more then enough negatives. Going for a -3 AB (something common to a lot of the forfarian weaponry), is counter productive in the land where a RAT, has more AC then an 8th level fighter in full plate. There are far to many nifty items with great descriptions, basically just serving the purpose of "Selling to Murnu", because the scale of the craftable items is not in synch with the setting. If a Steel Great Sword for example, were just +3 slashing, people would be all over this Forfarian version without even a peep.
~Rex