I have been focusing on my 1h a lot lately, and I am now under the impression that the best thing that could happen to melee weapon class balance, as far as 1hers are concerned, is if all weapons got a ~3 cut damage buff. One-handed weapon damage is so poor (aside from picks or the warhammer) that it restricts effectiveness with varying builds. Both the Polearm and Two-Handed weapon classes can be very effective(comparatively) with a 4 PS build. A 4 PS build as a 1her means that to kill opponents, you have to land three to five times the amount of hits that are required to kill you. Using a Flanged mace, on my 3PS character in a duel against a plate wearing enemy, I knocked him down three times and landed a total of 15 hits before he died. This is with huge speed bonuses on nearly every hit, 10 athletics against three, light armor against plate.
Comparing unloomed weapons at 9 Str, a two-hander can do 37 cut damage, a one hander can only do 31. At 12 str, a two-hander can do 42, a 1h is stuck with 33c or 35c if he wanted to use an axe(very short, just another limiting factor). Certainly it isn't the ability to use a shield that calls a 2 cut growth compared to 5, balance, assuming there even is such a thing here. 1h may be near balanced for light armor, but the more you add, the further imbalanced things get.
Edit: The only saving grace for 1h currently, is that right now there is consistently an abnormally high amount of ranged fighting going on.