I am also not convinced that the Finnbear mounts are "fakes". I also don't think that any of the "accepted as authentic" mounts are necessarily representative of the entire production run. From what I have read, these black original mounts are supposedly machined in their entirety, and this is the hallmark of a "real" mount. Be that as it may...machining is a very innefficient method for mass production, and if 50,000+ mounts were produced, some method of expediting the process would almost certainly be employed. If I were to "fake" a mount myself, machining, or casting would be the easiest way. The widely available repro mounts are a single piece casting. A small production lot could easily be produced in a machine shop with minimal set-up costs, though this gets prohibitively expensive if competing with more suitable mass-production methods. Probably the most difficult (or certainly the least cost-effective) way to fake would be the combination of casting, stamping, welding, and machining employed in these "suspect" Finnbear mounts.