I for one love the idea of a lessons learned folder. I'd love to see a collection of photos of reproductions on there along with an explanation as to why they look like reproductions. For example, show a picture of the smooth steel surface of the inside of a Victorian burgonet, then show a photo of a hammered finish on an original burgonet.
You can look at my profile on the site, my second thread ever was about, *screams internally*, a Victorian burgonet I bought. Man did I want to kick and scream. I was so bitter about it that it's actually funny in hindsight. But the knowledge I gained was worth the price of admission.
We are all on the same side here. We all want more authentic pieces in the hands of people who enjoy researching and enjoy the hunt. There will be bruised egos, there will be experience challenged, and there will be dollars spent. But after all that, we'll figure something new out, we'll look at it soberly after, apologize for harsh words, and go find something cool and undiscovered out in the world. We all at some point have to be a student, a teacher, or someone to pat someone on the back say "sure it might be a reproduction, but it looks pretty good for a fake."
This has been a great community by and large. So we all need to make the case for growing it and keeping it accessible. To keep the person who might have bought a fake, still interested and willing to learn and have fun. And personally I think that a lessons learned folder would be a great way to do that.
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