Hi Big Norm, The differences between the two are subtle, but they are definitly evident when you see a large cross section of bottoms, over time... If you totally ignored the markings all together, you could still tell by the construction and material unique to each manufacture... These are not hard and fast rules, but are most of the time, evident... first, the Erfurt bottom will usually, or almost always be a darker, dark brown in color... where as the DWM will run anywhere from orange to red to red/brown (most likely they were both/all subjected to dyes)... second, and most obivious, the usual Erfurt bottom has a completely different radius on the external (outside) rim of the knob pieces... is is a sharper shoulder, so to speak, it doesn't have that nice soft radius that the DWM bottoms almost always display... consequently, the dimples on the knobs themselves will appear different.. the Erfurt convcave dimples will look larger, and more crude, because of the small radius edge, and the subsequent sharper shoulder... third, to further exaggerate the image of the knobs, the length (or width, how far it sticks out to the side) of the knob on the Erfurt is usually about .015" to .020" per side longer.... this is really visiable when you have several clips side by side... if you take a dial caliper and measure the heigth of this knob, it is supposed to be approx. .250" on each side finished.. but DWM cut the knobs to .250" then radiused the rim, then plunged the dimple... so, you end up with about .235" per side... whereas the Erfurt will almost always approch the .250" as spec'ed.... On mag bottoms in general, because of wear, parts swaps, replacements etc. there is a huge hazy zone in between, where anything goes, and it is hard to tell. But, there are many, many examples that are constant, and I have seen a lot of them... and that is all my conclusions are based on.. just my observations... remember the above, and tell me what you see after awhile! I'd be interested in what the rest of the forum has experienced in this area! Best to you Big Norm! til...lat'r....GT
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