Better resources. First stage is wooden sword, then, as you go spelunking in the caves, you find copper, iron, silver and gold ores which can be crafted into their respective sword analogues. After that, you go exploring the Corruption, kill some bosses and obtain Demonite Ore and Shadow Scales, which are used in crafting a more powerful sword(among other things). There is much more than that, read on here http://wiki.terrariaonline.com/Swords
