Revisiting a thread that FP had started over a year ago on repro sabers, has anyone come accross any repros on the market that are newly discovered? I've been keeping an eye on plain-Jane armys and lufts, but havn't really been following ss/police degens and KM pieces, justice, etc...not to mention engraved. Anything new surface?

check out http://www.geocities.com/stromloswords@sbcglobal.net/Main, Stomlow swords, the naval saber appears to be well made, as does the luft. Joe S

The Chinese fakes are getting better and better. I think they are the latest entry into the completly new fake sword market. Of course, they are making all sorts of swords such as Japanese, Bulgarian, French, etc.

Some of the older fakes just keep poping up over and over and fooling new collectors who have not seen them before. A lot of Jim Atwood's old stock has come into the market recently. These are a mix of original NOS parts, new strikes of new parts from old dies, and stuff that Atwood had made up in the 1960s. This stuff has legitimate age on it and can fool collectors who have not seen it before. I am always afraid these parts will be added to ratty original swords and viola, a new fake is born.

Here is an example of some of this group of parts for SS and Police swords. Be careful and beware!

These are the fake etched blades for the SS swords. Some folks are still fooled by these.

And here are some of the practice etches to test the fake templates.

Are the etches done to original blades, or is even the steel faked?

DTS

DTS-
The majority of bad etches we see are on period pieces. If you scroll through this particular forum, there is a Luftwaffe fliegerschwert that was the topic of discussion. It was a bit of a heated debate but made for a great read. It catered more to the advanced collector, yet was an educational for everyone. Often times latent, tell-tale signs exist that exposes the etch as post war applied. I belive there is a list of the "usual suspects" that are sort of implicated in these schemes. A former member here, who if memory serves me, was booted for getting crafty with 33's and SA's. I belive he was referred to as Mr. Etch-a-Sketch ...if y'all recall. I recall he had some legitimate pieces, but was called out by GD and WA members after trying to peddle bad ones on FleaBay.

When considering purchasing etched and presentation pieces, you really need to hold them to a very high standard and a greater level of scrutiny as well.

I think GDC member Damast probably can give you some solid pointers as his focus is on fancy bladed sabers. With big dollars involved with these, there is no such thing as too much education and study.

t

Sword-fish, thank you for your quick and informative reply. I wonder, are there any further examples of Atwood's fake etches? If indeed the etches are done on period pieces, do they still have value?

Thanks,

DTS

DTS- that's an interesting question. I guess the question is actually multifold.

1) Do repro pieces have a collectibility?
2) What kind of value do legitimiate pieces that have been modified have?

I've read and heard that there are some (I don't kow any personally) who collect different generation reproduction pieces, and as such, Jim Atwoods pieces are considered some of the grandpappys of repros. As far as modified pieces go, in the case of legitimate blades with fake etches, I would imagine it substantially hurts the pieces value. Fake etches can't be undone, being the biggest problem. Monetarily I would imagine it has value if parted out, or to a collector who can overlook the bad etch and see through to the intrinsic value of the original piece, and maybe the history to it.

I guess over all it's an individual thing. I'm sure a purist would never have anything to do with a piece that has been embellished or fiddled with. For that matter, I suspect most collectors wouldn't, but i'm sure, if the price was right, there would be a buyer. Sorry I can't answer the question any better. Perhaps someone else can.

There is someone out there who collects anything and everything that you can imagine. As far as Third Reich items are concerned, I get no satisfaction or pleasure out of owning a replica. It means nothing and is worth nothing to me. One possible exception would be the post war German naval saber that I own with blue and gold etched blade. It is a work of art and I like it a lot. At any rate, I dont think replicas have any collector value for several reasons, the most important of which is there is no real limit to the quantitiy available, and the value is not likely to keep up with inflation, let alone appreciate like an original will. I am certain you will a slightly different answer from each person you ask, but this is how I see it. Joe S

Thanks very much for your responses. More to ask, but I'm trying to figure out how to position it.

DTS