Fake Goods
As genuine and well respected retailers for Hanwei, we have a duty of care to protect the brand we represent. So, if you have had any experiences of fake goods on auction sites please do let us know.
It has been brought to our attention that there are certain Hanwei Products that are advertised on an auction website, we believe these goods to be fake. The item we know to be fake is the Sword Oil, although we have heard rumours that there are fake Hanwei Swords advertised too.
To avoid disappointment we recommend you use official Hanwei Retailers. Note; you won't find any official Hanwei retailers on any auction site.
Sword Oil
How to detect fake oil; From the image you can see the bottles look similar, but on closer inspection they are different. The easiest thing to look for;
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The crossed swords on the genuine bottle has a blue highlight, the fake bottle does not have this.
Also..
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The label on the fake bottle is sellotaped on, on genuine bottles the label is glued on.
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The label on the fake bottle is a poorer quality print. Although, you could probably only see this when you compare the two bottles side-by-side
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The pump does not work on the fake bottle
There are other subtle differences, but these may be explained by a different batch of bottles. For example the edges of the cap on the fake bottle is rounded, squarer on the genuine bottle etc. One thing to note on the genuine bottle is that there can be some creases on the label.
The most important thing is obviously the contents. As you can see the genuine oil is brown and cloudy the fake oil is more orange and clearer.
The genuine oil has a "fruity" smell (caused by one of the ingredients). We're not sure what exactly the fake oil is, but we obviously recommend not to use it!
BearArm Ltd supplies only Genuine Hanwei Sword Oil and from £1.60 per bottle is it worth risking?
Genuine Hanwei Sword Oil - Single Bottle £2.00
Genuine Hanwei Sword Oil - Case of 12 £19.20
Misleading Auctions
One thing worth mentioning before reading on, Paul Chen Swords was the brand name used before Hanwei. Paul Chen Swords changed to Hanwei because people literally thought Paul Chen made each sword individually. So Hanwei and Paul Chen are the same brand, but Hanwei is the official name. Anyway...
Certain auctioneers use the Paul Chen brand to sell their own goods. The idea is that people search for "Paul Chen" and then get a list of auctions, what the sellers are doing is adding a bottle of "Paul Chen oil" to the listing so when people perform the search, they see their auction. They also mention things like "not Paul Chen", "better than Paul Chen" or "Paul Chen quality" (if a Masahiro blade is better than Paul Chen then I QUIT!).
99% of the time they are selling an inferior sword with a bottle of fake Hanwei Oil (see above). They even give the copies a Hanwei name (i.e. Bushido). I came across one "Bushiso" katana with a price tag of £172.50. The RRP on a Genuine Paul Chen Bushido Katana is £759 (our price £581).
The only way in which you will find a genuine Hanwei (Paul Chen) product on eBay is if it is second hand.