collectors always ask me for photos of a superfake. Well a few years ago we lost all our photos from a natural disaster.

But,,now found!!

First I'd like to show a effort from a member of WAF who was trying to copy a HR. I think he did a great job!

and now,,,a authentic HR next to a SuperFake... Wish I had more photos but this is it.. Maybe more will surface later..

Keep in mind this was a few years ago!

Holy Mackerel, G! How would a newbie feel safe?

John

Outsch!!
With some "wearing" nearly impossible to see any differences.
Is this fake cast from an original?
On this pic it looks like the band is a little bit smaller in hight.
The engravings in this fake would be very, very interesting.

here is mine super fake, that I wearing )))

and some shots )))
Its excelent ring that I saw

Speaking as a newbie myself, I can honestly say it's intimidating. However, when I went to my first max show last week, I really just kept my mouth shut, (to an extent, since I was really excited and a bit awestruck) and my ears open, and learned a lot. It helps when your "heroes" (Gaspare, Andy, Vinny, and of course, Mr. Boyle- I can't bring myself to call him Don- among others) are everything you hoped they were- true gentlemen through and through, made me feel welcome, and one of the "crowd." I'll be eternally grateful for that. And as far as how would a newbie feel secure in his find? Outside of a ring having a Don Boyle COA, as a newbie, I wouldn't make a move on it.

- I believe the collector from WAF even made his ring in the flat.. Rolled it so you see in the 1st photo it will have a seam! and, a separate skull then was added,,just like the originals!

The photo with the original and fake is a few years old..

*Evgeniy,,yours is a 'Hapur' copy? It is a real nice one!

*Byz. , it was a pleasure to meet you. One day you got to tell the guys here your HR story!

BIG question is: How good are the HR copies now? OR with a soft market all over the world copy process has been stopped and stagnated as it was... Yes even that old SuperFake copy with enough ageing and what not could still fool many collectors..

Wasn't there a guy here selling some home grown fakes a couple years back, is he still around ?
Wouldn't mind a fake to wear so long as its actual silver.

2 Gaspare
no its not hapur copy, hapurs copy vary badly

Wow, pretty good looking fake, that's for sure! So, Gaspare would like me to share my hr story, so here goes...I was at a gold buyers store this summer and I wanted to see what scrap gold was going for. While I was waiting I started looking at the coins and other stuff. I saw an old ring next to an Elgin Chicago pocketwatch and a pocketknife engraved with the Chicago skyline, I saw it had a skull on it so I thought it was an old Harley one percenter style ring since Milwaukee is near Chicago anyway. So I asked the guy what he wanted for it, and he sold it to me for sterling weight. I noticed right away that there was engraving on the inside and asked the guy if he knew what it said, and he said he didn't. I got out in the sunlight and was able to make out the runics, the swastika, and the H. Himmler in the inside, and a date, 21.6.40. It was denamed, but according to mr. Boyle, quite authentic, and a pretty cool find. I really wanted to meet Gaspare, and show him too, and I think we hit it off, and got a great laugh about it all. I went back to the store, and a lady who works there had just purchased a lot of ss and social work medals, etc. I asked if she had put a ring in the display case, but she said she did not, but there were 2 ss stickpins exactly where the ring was, but were sold the week before.

Thats a story!!!
Thanks for sharing here with us!

Here's my Hapur TK ring. As a matter of fact he made this exact ring step by step here on GDC to show the process. That thread may possibly still be around but this was several years ago. This picture was taken, obviously after I received the ring, and I had re-shaped the skull. His original skull was far too large and mis-shapen. He later altered this on subsequent copies.
If any of you have a copy and want to tone it for age Birchwood Casey's Aluminium Black works well for this purpose.
Jim

Jim's and my ring were made by Hapur in the same batch. I am very pleased with his workmanship and I recall it was $80 delivered. I would recommend him highly.

Mark

Mark:
IMO he did mislead everyone on one point. He maintained these were made from Sterling (925) silver. I've never bothered to have mine tested but it exhibits virtually no wear after all these years and I do wear it constantly so I know it's not real silver.
I suspect they are made out of an alloy similiar to German silver.

As an aside:It's a shame that John Pepera's TK ring alloy analysis wasn't realeased before his passing.
Jim

Jim,, does it ever turn your finger blackish?,,no wear at all?

Pretty strange silver content test - no wear, means no silver. Anything not silver would color your finger.
I think before statements like this you should first go to jewelry store and test it for silver content. It will not cost you any money and that would be only honest from you.

No it never turns my finger black nor does it ever tarnish. That's why I used Aluminum Black on it to tone it. And IMO it's too hard to be Sterling. It MAY have SOME silver content but that's it. hapur: You made them so you tell us what the metal content actually is.

Hi all, Gaspare asked me to share some pics of the hr I got this summer, I'm hoping this works... So here goes I tried a picresize so I hope it links/works... http://www.picresize.com/dl.php?i=rsz_5image.jpg

Jim,,if its not turning your finger blackish it has a high degree of silver in it.

Depending on what they alloy in now could be any combo of Tin, Copper, Brass, and God knows what else if it was 835 or even 900 you finger would turn color...
As far as tarnish,,if you wear it most the time, wash your hands with it on etc. it will never tarnish while on you.

You can test it,,or Hapur could you help us out here and let us know the silver content? [should we take bets? ]

P.S.
BYZ,,come on and resize them [123kb]..
There is a resizer in the Computer Help area
and other spots. No matter how big they
are when done they'll fit here..

You are absolutely right Gaspare. Anything with silver less than .900 and sometimes even .900 will turn color on your finger depending on alloy.

If ring is in active use it will not tarnish on finger. It will start tarnish only if it is not in use for some time.

And silver hardness depends on alloy used to make it, like copper, zinc or anything else that are used to change silver properties. .925 silver is sterling silver no matter what alloy is used, coper, zinc, palladium etc. As far there is 92.5% silver. For example in silver coins and silverware usually are nickel additives to make them wear resistant. Al is used to eliminate casting porosity, Zn to make better flow of liquid silver etc.

Below is my Hapur ring, i did not alter anything. I have worn it without fail for nearly two years, it only comes off to wash my hands.

I am an active person with many other hands on interests including cars etc so the ring has seen some abuse.. But yet only slightly worn on the teeth and rear of the band.

Many people complain about the hapur rings lacking important detail, personally i love mine.. Plus the engraving is far greater than some other superfakes i have seen on the market.. And all for around $80!!

hey, those are pretty sharp rings! Anyway all, let me try again to post. It seems the ios8 update to my iPad likes to play heck with my images... I think I was able to resize, through my photo editor, but well see if this shows up...anyway, it's an honor ring I found this summer...

No Gaspare it doesn't turn my finger black, but I think you're missing an important point here, in that it doesn't tarnish either. I have been around silver both antique and modern most of my life. If I leave a piece of silver out for awhile it will invaribly tarnish. I can mitigate this by coating a silver item with a polish but it will invaribly tarnish anyway.
This ring has never tarnished in all the years I've owned it even after sitting around unworn for awhile.
I will probably get this ring checked for metal content the next time I'm in a facility that is equipped for it.
I hope it does turn out to be Sterling but I remain skeptical.
Jim

Normally, I would not butt in, but I have to agree with Jim. A simple one line post by Hapur as to what metal content is used would solve this is a minute. HE did make them and should have that readily. I don't believe it is a trade secret that needs guarded. Ron

It is not secret and never was secret. If you read some old threads where I was writing about manufacture process you will see that at the begining I used vintage silverware as silver source. Later I quit doing that because of very different metal properties with same silver content. Now I use only .999 silver and make alloy myself with adding to crucible .074 copper, sure on special request I make different alloys.

Jim, I stand behind my product. If only problem after years of use is that ring does not tarnish I can fix it. You can return your ring and I will make you new ring in lower grade silver like 800-835 and it will tarnish for 100% much faster.

That should answer it.
I hope my post was not taken as rude or sarcastic to Hapur. Ron

old silverware!
Jim, probably won't test out to .925,,but I'd rather have the ring made from that!

G:
Much of the old silverware made here was produced from melted down coins. It is often marked "warrented pure coin". There never has been any hallmarking requirements here like those in Europe so Sterling ,to designate purity, is the other common mark you'll see.
Jim

Hapur could charge a lot more for his work and still have buyers lined up. I think for $80, we all got one hell of a deal. It is supposed to be a reproduction and I would prefer a ring that lasted a long time and did not wear out. That is the purpose of buying a reproduction ring with your name in it. Just my personal opinion. I would buy from him again without a second thought. I am VERY pleased.

Mark

Got to get one of these, the quality and price can't be beat.

Johnny R.

Who has info on how to obtain one of these rings?

Hi Bob,,contact Hapur thru his email listed in his profile.

I thought these were die struck Hapur? I don't understand about 'Casting Porosity'? Do you mean when melting in the metals at first, before you roll them out?
Thanks,
Mark

Yes sir, all my TK rings are die struck only.
I was explaining there about different alloys, what exactly each additive is used for.

Could someone post the early and later styles of the SS Honor Ring (front with skull showing).
This has probably been posted before, but I've missed it.

Thank you.

I second that. I said it before, I say it again: Hapur's craftsmanship, attention to detail, ORIGINAL die-struck process (made just like back in the day.. where else could you get that? Probably nowhere in the world! Also the quality of this process is way higher than modern cast rings, the density is 33% higher, so it's much longer lasting than cast examples) and effort put into his work are second to none -he changed my engraving three times, just to be sure it's perfect. And he says if I should not like it: just send it back and he'll change it again!!
Talk about perfect service. He is also very knowledgeable on the production process and very helpful to newbs like me, who want to learn about it.
And the price... well, I should not say anything, lest he'd raise them, HAHAHA! Well, they are more than appropriate for what you're getting, and that's for sure. VERY fair, very good, really. Highest recommendation from a very happy customer and sure future repeat customer, too!! :-)
Mark

I recently bought one of hapurs rings and as far as quality and attention to detail goes its top notch.

I don't know if its my browser but when I click http://www.totenkopfrings.com/ it just takes me to a blank page

Just clicked your link and it worked for me, I would try another browser- I usually have 2 or 3 available, chrome, Safari, and Firefox - usually one or the other works.

I tried it in firefox and it worked, seamonkey is what I use and it didn't work.

Website seems flawed, once I filled out the info and hit "place order", everything disappeared and nothing went through.

just pm me.