sword/armor aesthetics using dye

Swords are all the same besides color, and texture packs remedy this but do not give us as much variety for swords as historically existed. Crafting a sword together with a dye should give it an alternative texture or shape so we can have katanas, spears, whatever else while still keeping the game balanced. Some swords could be hammers, some could be historical weapons like a kunai, or whatever else. There would be as many options for each sword as exist dyes in the game, to prevent us from getting sick of the same old sword. the same could theoretically be done for armor, shields, bows, etc. and it seems unlikely to cause issues since it's just aesthetic and basically the same sword or armor with new textures.