Tibetan sword: real?????

[josh stout]

I looked at all of the blades and they look genuine. However, in the condition they are in, they would not cost much as just the blade in Tibet. The scabbards have a bit of variation in what is fake and what is not. As mentioned the stones and coral look dyed, and there are many relatively recent additions and repairs. There was one blade with unfortunate fittings that even has the rare "jelly role" folding pattern like the one toward the bottom of this page (http://www.vikingsword.com/ethsword/tibet/index.html). The swords are clearly not worth the asking price, but they are not completely fake either. I would say these are typical of many Chinese dealers on eBay or elsewhere. Some things are real, while some things are not. Let the buyer beware. Due to the bad condition of the blades and mixed age of the fittings I would say these are overpriced by about a factor of ten.
Josh