MINIATURE KNIVES/TRAVELLERS SAMPLES FOR COMMENT

[thinreadline]

Further to my comments that these were being sold by World Wide Arms at least 15 years ago , I contacted my son and he still had the set I bought for him 15 years ago and he has sent me a picture of the group, which to all intents is the same as the set under discussion. To reiterate , just because they were sold by WWA it does not mean they are fake, as WWA have been responsible for importing some unusual and rare items in the past ( though some of their current stuff is recently made Indian / Chinese copies ) . But it does mean that there are many such sets around .
One of the best things World Wide Arms had on offer which I remember from the early 1980s was a complete set of elephant armour mounted on a wicker 'elephant' in their top floor storeroom next to Weller & Dufty's in Birmingham .It was £10,000 ... how I now wish I had bought it when I realise how much the Royal Armouries paid for theirs ! Though in those days I bought a 3 bed semi for only 2 grand more and my wife oddly enough preferred a house to an armoured elephant ! Ah well .

[spiral]

Originally Posted by thinreadline

Further to my comments that these were being sold by World Wide Arms at least 15 years ago , I contacted my son and he still had the set I bought for him 15 years ago and he has sent me a picture of the group, which to all intents is the same as the set under discussion. To reiterate , just because they were sold by WWA it does not mean they are fake, as WWA have been responsible for importing some unusual and rare items in the past ( though some of their current stuff is recently made Indian / Chinese copies ) . .

By 1990 at the latest, {Lets be genourous say 20 years ago} they were having made, fake 1917 marked kukri British army Issue stamped kukri that unscroupulous dealers still buy & use to con naive or inexpierienced collectors.

There still making & selling them today. I`d guess when the real stuff ran out 30 years ago the fakes came in wholesale.

Spiral

[thinreadline]

Originally Posted by spiral

By 1990 at the latest, {Lets be genourous say 20 years ago} they were having made, fake 1917 marked kukri British army Issue stamped kukri that unscroupulous dealers still buy & use to con naive or inexpierienced collectors.

There still making & selling them today. I`d guess when the real stuff ran out 30 years ago the fakes came in wholesale.

Spiral

There is a trick to telling fake from real in WWA descriptions. They choose their words very carefully eg a Kukri of the British Army PATTERN / STYLE / TYPE etc .. ie they dont say this is a British Army kukri .

[spiral]

Originally Posted by thinreadline

There is a trick to telling fake from real in WWA descriptions. They choose their words very carefully eg a Kukri of the British Army PATTERN / STYLE / TYPE etc .. ie they dont say this is a British Army kukri .

I know that & so do you, the thousands of naive & inexpierienced people who dont realise that "trick" get ripped of. {particularily when the word pattern is used, {Which of course why its the is the term they usualy use.}

Most re.sellers also forget to mention it of course!

Also the term pattern can be very subjective in British army weapons, after all many swords etc are generaly refered to as 1796 pattern etc.

But we both know all this of couse......

Cheers,
Spiral