3ds Max Modeling :: Simple Way Of Creating Curved Surface?

I've been working on creating a sword in 3D Max for the last couple of days and have run across a problem. At the base of the blade, it goes up straight for about an inch and then tapers out and up another half inch in a curve.From there, the blade tapers/curves back in, then out once more to create a thicker end of the blade, width wise. I need to know a simple way of doing those curves. A friend of mine suggested using quick loops, then individually scaling them to get the curving effect. That just seemed like it took too much time to me, and I thought there must be a simpler way. I tried adding a taper modifier to the selected area, but that didn't really seem to do much, except give the opposite effect that I wanted.