Cold Steel Naval Dirk: Origin of Design?

[Atlantia]

Originally Posted by Dmitry

Well, if that's the case I'm glad you didn't buy it! We've all seen this type of thing,aging the repros, quite a bit in the recent years. Most of the time these are quite obvious, but they are getting better every year.
Nevertheless, there are still many good period examples of naval dirks out there, especially in the UK.

Thank you Dmitry
The unsettling thing about this repro is that there are no makers marks and given the right treatment, the brass mounts, horn hilt and non stainless blade can suddenly look like an obscure dirk of genuine age and good quality.
The scabbard is a little 'thick' with its wood liner, but with the right signs of age and use everywhere else, its easy to overlook that!
I just want to bring this to everyones attention.
I don't think for a second that it would have fooled an experienced Dirk collector like yourself, but someone like me who sees what seems to be a nice old dirk and thinks it could be the start of a dirk collection, could get caught and lose a good amount of money.
After all, the item in question is essentially a modern knife in 'well used' condition (at best) so its value is in reality now very little.

As a rider on this, I'd like to add that the chap selling it I GENUINELY believe doesn't know its a fake.
I've now bought two nice genuine items from him and he has many more.
I intend to tell him (or point him in the right direction to see for himself) next time I see him, as I hope he'll want to know.

Best
Gene