I'd like to second Rick's concern that the "boys from Rajastan" are branching out and are getting better and better. On top, their asking prices go up indicating their successful experiences with earlier offerings. We used to worry about Chinese fakers, but they apparently do not hold the candle to their Indian ilk.
Life is getting tougher and tougher.....
I just held in my hands a blade by the Russian master Ivan Kirpichev: beautiful, complex Khorasan/Taban, identical in all characteristics to the best Safavid examples. He is perfectly honest and very proud of his achievements: marks the blades with his name. No worry about him.
But if he could do it, the "dirty dozen" will not be very far behind. We have to prepare ourselves for a flood of Assadullah's blades indistinguishable from the best Fiegel's items.

more Questions
 

After considerable time using a diamond lap stone on the edge only it now has a curved (rounded) 2 /32 inch bevel that is just at the point of cutting paper easily. I stopped there to avoid future edge blunting by someone with safety concerns. Given you'd rework the blunted edge. Would you go further to blend in the original shape?

After the re-etch there was a fairly defined laddered Kirk effect on one side. the odd side was a little less defined. I marked one of the more noticeable" forced?" patterns the others are not noticeable. Evidently the maker must have meant for the blade to be stained, does that help clarify anything? As Dom said earlier at least this may be used as an example. Steve

Nincha
 

Here a typical one with European blade
Regards

Cerjak

I'm sorry, but I just can't see any deliberate attempts at the formation of a 'kirk' pattern on this blade . :shrug:

Pattern
 

Hi, Rick, Your right about the forced patterns. It shows those three spaced patches and once again between the quillions and nearer the blade tip. The central ones are about where the blade arcs. So its likely they are naturally occurring from forging. Thank you all for your information and excellent Nimcha examples. Steve