Knowing next to nothing about Chinese swords, I was also rather positively impressed by how "not pretty" the blade looked. The Chinese junk flooding the market often sports shiny "damascus" steel and looks as new and pristine as money can buy.
So, says I, aren't we dealing with a rare example of an honest Chinese Internet sword collector?
And then I recalled the new wave of Chinese junk: this time around they are counterfeiting not Japanese Katanas or Chinese Daos, but Russian 1881 shashkas ( I guess they noticed the prices these pieces fetch on e-bay....). The quality of those blades is rather close to what Nagawarrior shows here. I guess it took the buggers some time to realize that antique swords should look well...... old? worn out? ... to successfully fool idiots like myself.
I've been fooled not once and not twice by the e-bay bandits, and the main reason was that I WANTED a piece of obvious junk to turn out to be a " dream sleeper" (anyone else with similar experience?
).
But I firmly maintain one rule: every sword with Chinese connection is a fake until proven otherwise. And I resigned to let others do the prooving.