i posted this also on another more general forum i frequent, had one reply thinking they were real folded steel, one for them being 'fakes'.
i suspect myself that they are recent copies rather than ancient (i noted the right hand one's mounts had fasteners holding the slotted suspension bar to the mounts that are a bit shiny and seem to have a screw-driver slot, coulda been a recent repair tho & also thought the chinese on the left one a bit crude. i suspected that the patterning was a bit similar to those you see on the chinese sites. .... i asked the seller if they were from an estate sale or more recent mfg. (as in last week) but he did not reply as yet
the price wasn't bad - if they were originals i'd feel bad about fixing them up and sharpening them & i'd probably have had to pay a considerable amount more. i bought them to play with rather than as investments
will see when they arrive if they are good junk or bad junk.