[A. G. Maisey]

I do my own testing of silver: a bottle of silver test fluid lasts for years, the process is simple, you just put a drop onto a clean surface, if it turns red its silver, the speed of colour change and depth of colour give an indication of level of purity. The stuff is cheap.

The big problem is getting into the core material. With a pendok or scabbard cover that can be removed you can scratch down on the inside surface to core material with a little scraper, but who wants to do that scratching on a visible and finished surface?

Not me, that's for sure.

So then you need to either find a place where the scratching will not be seen, or disassemble the sword or scabbard, and if you do not know exactly how these were put together in the first place, this can be a real trap for young players.

Good silver plating will test as silver --- but it is not. The difference between the value of silver and the value of silver plate very big, it is not just material value, silver work costs multiples of work in brass.