Thank you for these responses guys!
I know exactly what is meant about the delusions!! As a young collector I was VERY wide eyed, and smitten with the notion of weapons that I had seen in of course all the movies etc. Naturally I was perfect fodder for dealers who were great story tellers and well crafted 'descriptions'.
It was not long until I realized how important it was to learn more on the true character of the weapons themselves, and my emphasis became more focused on books and references.
It is amazing to look at the weapons I acquired back in those halcyon days and the excited views I had of them as compared to the cases of more mundane heritage my more educated study had placed on them in more recent times.
However, I have often been pleasantly surprised when in some cases these worn and rough condition old warriors were eventually revealed to be more rare and historically valuable than previously imagined. That became my goal, to discover the 'true' story behind each weapon I could, regardless of outcome. I resented being faced with truth as opposed to the romantic notions I had hoped for, but often found the actual character discovered to be interesting in its own right.
These conditions of course are heartily discounted when an item is found to be a 'reproduction' or 'mule' (composite of old parts). The point I was making was that in presenting this outcome to the hopeful poster, the truth can be conditioned by thoughtful wording rather than blunt declarations of being 'fake' or other derisive comments.
As an analogy for example, an airline delay caused by weather is obviously not the airlines fault.....but what matters is the way the passengers are handled by the representatives of the airline.
Naturally one would prefer to know the truth on a weapon, but beyond the courtesy in revealing the negative outcome, the learning is profoundly important. To explain the character of the actual weapon form and the incorrect features which expose the disparity would be most helpful to the owner and those reading, and hopefully prevent such events for other readers.
Another analogy, in the movie "Road House", Patrick Swayze in instructing his 'enforcers' on getting troublesome patrons to exit the place, he emphatically noted '..but be NICE!'.
Possibly oblique here, but you get the idea.