I read somewhere (I think) that Armi San Marco renamed to AWA International and bought American Western now named AWA USA. If that circuitous tale is correct then AWA is Armi San Marco which isn't a bad thing. I believe they had in-house case color which makes me wonder why they'd pony up for DTR - it's got to be an outsized percentage of the price.
I don't even have conjecture on EMF.
The Cimarron, as already noted, is a Uberti built to more stringent than average specs. They seem to keep the local cowboys a happy lot.
The charcoal "bright blue" that AB posted is thought by some to actually be a nitre heat blue which wears in a big hurry. I might try it someday with a slathering of Renaissance wax just to see if it helps. It'd be a pretty spiffy finish if one could keep it.
DTR case color will wear - whoever answers the phone at Turnbull will take pains to tell you that - at least they did when I called. However, in the case of STI and Turnbull's own USFA the stuff is hit with violin lacquer and seems to wear well - mine aren't even a year old yet so it's not had much of a test.
I find case color to be an acquired taste. It started off looking like corrosion to me (<- blasphemy) but I'm warming up to it. The Turnbull carbona blue is also growing on me. I'm not certain it actually looks better than hot salt blue or simply seems so because it's different.
I didn't feel right giving this a second gratuitous "bump" so have posted unfounded rumor, gross speculation and personal prejudice. Hopefully Mr. March will be by to offer some insight before it scrolls off the bottom of page 1 again.
