Sword was in pristine condition.
I will continue to update this with better accounts of how many hits it takes to kill a player as I can:
Update: I killed a player with some where between 1-3 body shots and a head shot (head shot killing blow). So it is not consistently as high as the above scenario.
Update 2: I let another player hit me as a fresh spawn with a sword. I asked him to hit my body, he aimed a bit low and hit my legs. He only hit my legs and it took 9-10 hits before I went unconscious.
Video evidence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC2UU2uKGoM&feature=youtu.be