Ever since I got my one handed skill all the way up, I havent been able to find a better sword. I have been stuck with an ebony mace since it is my weapon with the most damage at 48. I would like to find a better sword because I like the speed, look, and finishing moves better with the sword than with the mace. Can I find a sword with an attack better than 48?

well just get a unique looking sword and smith it to the highest level

Can I raise anything to a really high level? I am thinking of doing a glass sword because they are the coolest looking IMO.

Combining smithing, alchemy, and enchanting together can make even an iron dagger capable of killing Alduin in one hit.

How is your smithing skill? I think that's the easiest way to solve your problem

Not very good, only 39. How do I get it up higher?

You can spam iron daggers smithing to quickly grind it.

Oh ok and once I make upgrade something, will it ever degrade back to normal?

Unless you come across an extremely rare glitch (like the one that sent my level 100 archery down to 15 forever) then no, it will not degrade.

Sweet! Thanks for all the replies! Ya'll helped me out a lot!

or depending on your lvl go and do some dungoncrawling and look for those daugr deathlords above lvl 30 alot of them drop ebony weapons

or like earlier posters said upgrade your smithing even a skyforge steelsword upgraded does almost same damage as a ebony sword and you tend to get rather attached to that weapon atleast i did and i am still using that same skyforgesteel sword