Read up art forgeries. There are plenty of ways to age old paintings, sculptures and other objects to make them look dirty and worn with realistic weathering.
This also applies to old guns and even cars. All those things have been forged or altered to appear older than they really are. (Or to be associated with historic people or events that they have no connection too like a "7th Cav rifle" or "Hitler's PPK")
Seriously, like I said earlier, I'm looking at this from a different perspective. This has all the tell tales of a fairly well executed con with some effort made to create a convincing new "just found" prop and a seemingly plausible story that covers a multitude of sins. ("It's different because it was repaired")
The story itself, which really can't be checked as the main players are dead.
The fact that no documentation exists to match the story, like say a work order to Chang found in the memos that have been published for "phaser prop repairs" or even any work after his initial work was completed.
Or any references to him having this after the show ended, from anyone, at anytime. No one says, "He mentioned he had one still" or "He showed it to me when I interviewed him" or anything like that.
The fact that it can't be screen matched to any of the four known hero phasers.
That means there is a fifth, previously unknown hero, that was never captured on screen or referenced in any memos. And if the P1 and P2 are supposed to NOT originally be a matching pair, that means that there were TWO previously unknown heroes. (One that is now this P1, and a second that is now the P2 matched to the P1.)
Then look at the object itself. At first glance the construction techniques and wear, etc, look convincing. But then look closer:
The fiberglass on the P2 is thicker than the Jein.
The construction technique with the inlet side rail was not used on the original hero prop. This was something done by early replica prop makers and carried over by others later.
The Velcro is the modern type, not the correct vintage type.
The handle is noticeably different than the Jein handle in shape and size. The handle base plate seems to match a modern commercially available plate.
The nozzle is different from known screen caps AND matches a modern replica nozzle commercially available.
The location of the side knob.
The shape of the side rails that matches the Diamond Select shape.
All those things should be setting off warning bells and red flags. At this point, now that some current production replica parts have been found that appear to have been used (the nozzle, and handle baseplate), I can't imagine how anyone can really believe this is a 55 year old, previously uknown, prop and not a well done fake.
A real test would be buy one of those modern nozzles from eBay and compare it straight across with the auction piece in person. And then compare it to the Jein. I bet in person that modern nozzle will match the one in the auction piece exactly and have even more noticeable differences from the Jein.
Same for the handle baseplate.
