Houston, First - Part of me is inclined to agree with Tom that some folks who for whatever reason were encouraged to enter this discussion. Now find themselves in a type of discussion that they had not anticipated when it started. And that where opinions (versus facts) are involved it will be difficult if not impossible to to find a common ground.

As regards your statement: �All the points you make saying all the signatures should be the same for the real also applies to the fake.� I�m going to have to respectfully disagree. If we take 20 modern reproductions from a factory and line them up they are probably all going to look alike.

But (at least as far as I know) there is no �Counterfeit Central� that altered in one fell swoop all of the conversions of original (and parts/fake/etc.) SS daggers to create counterfeit Himmler presentation daggers. It happened over time from multiple sources. And over time from (quite possibly) multiple sources with different or no tooling (specialized equipment) you are going to see different results from one item to the next.

My point being that especially with the Eickhorn company they were not amateurs and about as good as it gets in producing quality items. And the quality control for the signatures on all four blades - but most especially the one that started the thread - is NOT good. They all appear to be hand done, the etching depth is not consistent, and with the original one posted the acid went crazy and messed up the blade. How do you defend that example as an Eickhorn product??

I have voiced what I feel are valid opinions mixed in with facts. I have no ill will towards those who joined in, and as Tom suggested am prepared to walk away from the discussion. As we all know there were two other recent discussions - one of which ended a little prematurely. So at some point, when everyone has provided whatever input they may wish to get across, I would imagine that this discussion could also be allowed to taper off or be ended. And if it�s not over yet, that also is OK.

PS: Please permit me to make a correction and strike �diffused� and make it: �Only in how uneven the edges (or bottoms) will be.� which I think would probably have been a better choice of words. Regards, FP