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 From Marco

20th December 07

 

First of all, take a look at the general shape and  of the details.

Sometime the items are completely different from original ones , and in that case everything is easy : but of course you have to  at least  know the most important characteristics of Roman weapons.

Here on the left some terrible  fakes, and on the right  some originals. The differences are self  evident.

 

 

 

 






 

As you can see, everything here is wrong, the shape of the blade , of the handle , of the pommel and of the grip.  The material is fake, too.

 

Maybe we meet some items of the  correct  shape, but not original . Sometimes they are modern replicas with some rust. On the left below , a gladius  blade type "Pompei". You can see that the shape is really perfect , perhaps too perfect. An ancient weapon never seems like this, always it has more rust and damage. If you put a modern industrial replica into the ground  for two years then it will appear like this.

 

On the right , some genuine "Pompei " types.

 

 

 




 

Now fake and genuine pugio.

Above pieces, notice the shape of the handles, which is wrong , but the shape of the blade is quite realistic. The blade below is genuine.

 




Lastly, the most dangerous :  a fake made by an expert craftsman, intentionally creating  a fraud.

 In this case  he knows everything about the antique object and how to remake it. Normally all details are carefully  made , and the fake seems good .

The only thing is that is substantially impossible to remake perfectly is the damage occasioned to he piece over time; especially on iron.

I have to say that sometime is quite impossible to be sure that an object is fake only from pics and often we need to examine such trhing in person.

Here some very good fakes, easily fooling many as the genuine thing.

First a fake Mainz type gladius.

Below it, the real thing.