Faked deacts

[MG42UK]

I have been wondering given the proliferation of fakes of Third Reich militaria generally (uniforms, helmets, daggers), is there a risk this will now manifest itself in the area of deactivated weapons given the premium Third Reich firearms command as deacts. You see plenty of modern produced C19th revolvers from places like Italy, but thankfully not much WW2 stuff. Is this likely to change soon as the fakers see the money to be made, so the cost of engineering something so it feels and looks authentic becomes worthwhile? The only 'fakes' commonly seen are the Denix guns, but you'd have to be very naive to think one of those could be original.

I know the old MG53 dressed up as an MG42 trick, but has anyone seen heard of this happening more frequently?

Asking as I generally view fakes in the area of deacts as very are and easy to spot, but want to see what others think...

[BlackCat1982]

I haven't really given it much thought but I guess the most obvious ruse might be trying to pass off K98 rifles that had been made under licence in places like Spain or Turkey and stamping them up as German with fake Waffenamt marks. Having said that I have not seen any, but perhaps they do exist.

[MG42UK]

I haven't really given it much thought but I guess the most obvious ruse might be trying to pass off K98 rifles that had been made under licence in places like Spain or Turkey and stamping them up as German with fake Waffenamt marks. Having said that I have not seen any, but perhaps they do exist.

I guess one big safety mechanism is the need for a deact certificate so a gun must (unless the certificate is faked also) go through a proof house in the country where it is being sold, and hopefully any fake would be picked up there.

Also, just the level of engineering to make a gun look and fee authentic is that much harder by many multiples than a helmet or dagger. But as said in the first post, if the financials now add up that barrier may no-longer apply.

[lithgow]

The big fakery with rifles and other weapons appears to be taking an actual German service weapon and adding SS markings or making a 'sniper' model to make it more valuable to the easily fooled (but ruining it as an actual collectable). The K98k has a number of features only found on it and not foreign Mausers but of course the Germans used vast numbers of captured weapons or occupation production equivalents so there would be some scope for fakery there as FN or CZ rifles were exported all over the world before and after WW2.

[CBH]

In the tribal area of Pakistan, the guns smiths can carve a Luger out of an old engine block.
This rather lawless area are soon to be coming under more government control, expect more antiques to be made and fewer AK-47's.

[BrodieBartfast]

As stated above, the addition of bogus markings is really the only way a faker can hope to enhance the value of a deact. There's a reason I stuck to deacts for my first few militaria shows. They're one of the safest areas to collect in, especially for a newcomer with limited knowledge and experience.

Regards, B.B.

[M1910]

The biggest area for fake markings is weapons advertised as being german capture. I am aware of one batch of weapons sold with fake markings but I am not going to say what as I don't want to get sued. I just have it on very good authority which I trust.

Another area for the fakers is weappns purchased incomplete by dealers who then get the missing items made up in India or Pakistan. Weapons can also be enhanced and converted into more desrible and valuable models. I have seen things like Bipods, stocks and magazine adaptors made up. Some will say its restoring weapon and most dealers will tell you if you ask.

[HARRY THE MOLE]

One thing that you can be sure of is that if there is money to be made from faking something - no matter what it is - someone, somewhere, will do it.