One of the great things about the two movies so far has been the detail put into the props to make them realistic. Much of the gear seen in the movies is real, or cast from real props. A lot of work went into making the gear both as true to Tolkien and as real as possible

This is one of those subtle things where a lot of movies cut corners. This is because few people can actually point to this sort of stuff and tell what is totally faked, but it ends up adding the air of unrealness about the movie.

Jay