exactly how can you tell when an MRL blade is made by Del Tin Fulvio? I'm asking because someone on another forum (a Lord of the Rings based forum) has contacted me about an old sword he has and wanted to know if it was a Del Tin blade or not. I thought I heard that DT blades had a wolf or some other stamp design on them, along with a Museum Replicas stamp as opposed to a Windlass stamp (because Windlass didn't make the blade. Duh.) I could be wrong so that's why I am asking.

Early Del Tin blades were marked with a stylized "Running Wolf" mark such as this:

[ Linked Image ]

Later stuff has the blade stamped "Del Tin" in small writing.

Some of the MRL / Del Tin collaborations were not marked with anything and the only way to verify if it is a Del Tin blade is to do some product research on that particular model. Additionally, the Del Tin blades often have a more "gray" appearance than the more mirror-polished Windlass blades.

Speaking from limited experience, having only handled/owned a couple of Del Tins, I'd say if the blade is pretty much free of hammer ripples it might be more likely a Del Tin. I know that the Del Tins I had were nice and flat and most all but one of the MRL/Windlass things had a fair abundance of those ripples left in there. The exception being the little medieval shortsword, which was nice and clean. This is all general, and just from my experience, ofcourse. :)

My MRL/DT Falcata has both the Del Tin "Shield" on one side and "Made in Italy" stamped on the other....