Reproductions and the future......

BadgerDog

BadgerDog

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Hello folks ... :)

After seeing the thread by riflechair about Parker Hale producing new Springfield 1903's, I thought you guys might be interested in this site:

Waffen Arms (click here)

Waffen arms is dedicated to producing the finest and most authentic 98K rifles in the world. They are in every detail, as the original 98K rifles that were produced for war production by the Germans, including correct sniper scopes and mounts for only the rifle they were originally intended to compliment.

At Waffen Arms we ensure every BYF has its correct proofs on it: every BNZ, etc., has its correct proofs on it; correct stocks, butt plates, trigger guards, etc., that were correct to that rifle when originally produced in its factory. All rifle parts will be correctly serial numbered to the receiver of that rifle.
Click to expand...

Seeing evolving new businesses like this, it's apparent to me that the basic economic laws of supply and demand that govern any diminishing and collectible resource such as old milsurps, are definitely alive and flourishing. I've also seen eBay advertisements selling wood and metal impressing stamps (Longbranch and Krag), ostensibly to be used for restoration projects, but just easily could be used for fakery.

Having experienced a similar phenomenon in the late 60's and early 70's involving collectible military medals, I would predict that prices will continue to rise annually for the average material, with the more limited availability higher end quality pieces jumping exponentially. As this happens, it will be come more important than ever to maintain a provenance, particularly for the more expensive high end items.

If any of you are thinking about getting into collecting old milsurps more seriously, then now is the time to find and acquire good pieces, before it becomes virtually impossible to sort out authenticity from modern fabricated fiction.

Just my opinion... ;)

Regards,
Badger
 
The fakers can never get it 100% correct, especially with K98's. The grinding and buffing, wrong fonts, wrong blue, bleached stocks, renumbering, polishing, it all comes out it the wash.

The prey is the unsuspecting Newbie, fooled by the glitter and shine and the newness, perhaps followed with a good story.
 
I have seen and handle the Waffen Arms K-98's and scope mounts last spring and at the time they were not stamping their logos on them. They are of excellent quality and the work they did only needs a little time to add patina to them believe me!
 
Good luck to them with the stamping dies for the font, for the serial numbers and the alphabet (a-z) prefix. Each manufacturer (and there were so many-byf, dou, ar, bcd, ce...and keep going) had their own style of dies, and that is one thing that will show up right away and in 30 years from now. They just can't do it. They'll fool a Newbie. If they are renumbering, that will show up too, not only on the font, but the filing, sanding, grinding...So many things to look for, but all it takes is one flaw to make it a fake.
 
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Well these guys are reproducing scope mounts with CNC machines which any part will interchange with an original, I guess they can make up dies and punches if they really want to. Plus the collectors don't need another 4 or 5 thousand quality fakes on the market. They basically stripped down every rifle and matched up parts from the different arsenals to get back to the original look of the rifle. Well their work may not be perfect, there is always a margin of error, but I give them an A for effort!
 
So in other words, they probably scrapped hundreds of RC's and YC's, sorted the parts by maker and WaA markings, and then made up the best matches they could. So it's likely alot of the parts aren;t even re-serialled since they would only have the last 2 digits of the serial number on them.

Interesting way to go about it.
 
What they are doing is taking a $300 Rifle and Humping it into a $2500 to $7500 Fake, by whatever it takes to do it. A Humped rifle is always a Humped rifle, and not worth any more than what they bought it for. A sucker is born every minute.

It sounds like they do the RENUMBERING:

http://www.waffenarms.com/index.php?method=Content&Page=ReNumberedWeapons

Always get a second opinion (and as many as you can) before shelling out the big bucks.
 
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I am not disagreeing with any points made here, my take on this is not to dismiss these guys as Bubbas with a punch, a file and a can of Varsol. I have seen their work, talked with them and they are a pretty slick operation. Collectors Beware!
 
there is nothing more frustrating than saving your cash for a collectable piece of history, buying it, and then finding out it was reproduced in 2005. unfortunatly newbies to the firearms game are the future of the sport and by screwing these guys to make a fast buck will turn them against guns and gun accessories. i am against the reproduction of collector firearms unless they are clearly marked as repros. don't get me wrong i would pay a reasonable amount for a repro g43 but i would be exceptionally PO'd if i paid more for what i had thought was an original. i use the g43 as an example because there are not many of them and not everbody(even veteran collectors) would not know where all the marks should be. you guys with basements full of them can go stand in the hall:)
 
Reminds me of the gold plated and high polish blued No1Mk3 I saw at a gun show.They installed a high gloss stock, stuck a medallion on it and did some engraving. Then asked a ridiculous price as a WW2 memorial gun.
 
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