Saber

I propose a new weapon variant, the Saber. It would be similar to the sword, with a few minor changes and some major differences. 

For the sake of laziness, all stats that I use here will be for the Diamond variant.

The Diamond Saber would deal either 6 or 8 damage, depending on which feels more balanced. It would have either the same attack speed as a sword, or it would be slightly faster. The durability would be around 700 or 800, which is almost half of what a Diamond sword has. 

The thing that makes the Saber different from a Sword is that it can block and parry attacks. While holding a Saber, pressing the alt-fire button (right click) would allow you to block with it. Blocking with the saber uses up 2-3 durability per attack successfully blocked. If you attack immediately after blocking an attack, you would deal 50% more damage than normal. In addition, the saber would be unable to gain the Sweeping edge enchantment, and the sharpness enchant (along with smite and bane) would only be able to go up to III. However, Sharpness would always give +1 damage per Sharpness Level.