some food for thoughtand random things that cropped up in my mind while reading this thread and in no particular order…
a two inch knife blade puncture perpendiculur to the torso is 98% fatal if left untreated. (don't ask why i know that)
Whatever said a 'knife' will not reach the man inside the heaviest armor available to medieval heavy mounted cavalry.
The devs are constantly changing the combat algorithms so comparing damage is pointless unless you are talking about within days of now. (i've taken a small break and come back to find myself doing twice the damage i was before

)
It's important to remember that all weapons have advantages and disadvantages - if you balance everything out then it's just a matter of finding what looks pretty on your character and powerleveling.
In RL, under certain disciplines, a master of paired knives (butterfly knives) can an equivalent master in spear fighting (6 to 9 foot).
The system should be tweaked so that location of strikes will allow for some one hit kills. I think the system is on the way to doing this but the upper range weapons are still too powerful. A battle axe blow, or a claymore to the head by a master should be instant fatality whereas a dagger or a sabre (generally a slashing weapon) should leave the victim staggering and just about close to dead.
When arguing about which weapon should do more damage because it is more effective and more likely to come out the victor you can always throw what if scenarios around: what if the guy with two [long]swords constantly steps back out of range of the daggers and swings his swords which would be in range of the dagger fighter, what if the dagger fighter gets too close to the sword fighter for him to use his swords effectively ad nauseum. Just accept what the devs put in and relate that to the way your character fights that weapon and that other styles of weapon fighting exist but aren't available in yliakum

I could go on about the non-sequiturs of game fighting systems forever… just RP around it i say!