Indeed. I have seen swords on Ebay by a very prominent and prolific seller for rather high prices show signature marks that have been chilseled in 'tap fashion" - almost surely fakes - from China. The Chinese forgery business has picked up in orders of magnitude over the past 5 years. It includes saya, blades, and fittings of every type and description. The worst part of the situation is that younger people without any background and experience with the real thing are easily fooled by these fakes and waste their money collecting garbage.
There is no substitute for "hands on" experience and intensive study of blades and the methods of production. Unfortunately, both books and blades are becoming scarce and forgery is winning the game as strict knowledge is diluted and replaced by fantasy.
All we can do is educate.
