Remember the Wooden sword was taken by Talo and later Link found it back in the cave when he was searching for the kids when he was a wolf. Rusl made the first sword and the Ordon sword so I guess both swords are made of Wood and might be equal considering Rusl made it. Remember Midna said it...
Like I said before you can use the Wooden Sword by simply selecting it from your menu. I checked it today and it's there. You can use the Wooden/Ordon Sword. Oh and btw I did defeat the darknuts with and without using those special skills. It is much harder but not impossible. And it will take...
Simply go to your menu and select the Ordon Sword from the screen. After you obtain the Master Sword your Ordon sword is replaced but you can select the Ordon Sword in the menu if you like.
There are quite a lot of people who achieved this ;) I have played TP myself a lot of times and I fullfilled the quest without the hylian shield. It is fun actually. Nope I didn't do the three hearts challenge ;) Even though I defeated the game like 7 times I still think I must play it some more...