Talwar Authenticity or Paranoia

[NetShocK]

Folks, in my recent attempts to purchase a secondary market Talwar XL, a gentleman contacted me with an offer to sell his S35VN model without the retail box. He indicated that he bought it second hand a few years ago, which struck me as odd given "a few years ago" they were previously either CTS-XHP or AUS8a and not S35VN. He sent some pictures and the knife looks as expected. I asked for a picture of the blade etching and he sent this:

Here is the etching on a retail Talwar stock image:

Not identical to my eye, but I wonder if such things are always identical, particularly given an ownership change and potential batch changes at the manufacturing level.

When I asked him to clarify the purchase date, he said he wasn't certain of the exact date, but that it was some time in the last two years. He offered to sell it for $160 CAD (~$120 USD) and I am able to purchase one retail for $230 CAD (~$170 USD).

ETA: The gentleman that contacted me has impeccable feedback on another enthusiast forum, so this isn't to question his integrity in any capacity.

In any event, just curious if any of you have insight or thoughts you'd care to share?

 

[KenHash]

If you are concerned about the authenticity of this knife, you might want to post photos of the whole knife so the experts here can see them.

 

[jux t]

Yes, images of the entire knife would help. For what it’s worth, I don’t recall ever seeing a fake Talwar, nor any fakes with the new Cold Steel logo. First time for everything, though.

 

[thebrain]

It would help to see screws and whatnot to help with authentication. The etch looks pretty good and about two years ago would still fit with the beginning of that steel being used.