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A comment on Mark Hofmann.

Re:Mark Hofmann by umvi on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @04:35PM (#18188600)
It makes me wonder what other historical artifacts we believe are genuine are actually forgeries.

How was Hoffman able to forge letters that were supposedly 100+ years old? Wouldn't modern materials dating techniques reveal the fraud immediately?

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Re:Mark Hofmann by yesenadam on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @06:21PM (#18189464)
I guess if you know the dating techniques, you know how to fool them. Kinda test-driven development.
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Re:Mark Hofmann by xahrepap on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @04:37PM (#18188621)
He would take pages from old books. The blank pages at the start/end, etc. Not sure how he spoofed the ink
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Re:Mark Hofmann by failrate on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @08:43PM (#18190182)
IIRC, you can either recreate the ink from a recipe, find old ink and re-dissolve it, or if you have the patience you can extract it from old pages.
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Re:Mark Hofmann by gonzo on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @08:53PM (#18190248)
“Hofmann also learned how to manufacture inks using the same components and methods used by contemporary artisans.”

https://www.ioba.org/standard/2002/11/genuine-fakes-mark-hof...

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Re:Mark Hofmann by posamari on Thursday October 11, 2018 @03:38AM (#18191595)
Is this why he collected first edition books? I didn’t realise it but this would make a lot of sense.
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