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Niklas,

I am glad to hear that. Wish I would have known in advance, it would has made life easier.

IF they were forging "in-house" then retooling would have been required to make the dimensional changes. An expensive proposition. However, if everything is outsourced.... I doubt any German maker was supplying them in 1943. They may have been living off of in-stock inventory.

Pete

There were three main things that resulted in some of Swedish steels being of very high quality, previous to development of Bessemer process for removing impurities.

The most fundamental one is result of a "geological accident" that produced iron ores containing exceedingly low amounts of the degrading elements S and P. This is iron ore from Dannemore Mine and others of same geological origin.

The second is also gelogical, that is, Sweden has very few coal deposits, resulting in need to process iron ore using charcoal instead of koke. If koke, made from coal, as in Germany, had been used to process Dannemore iron ore, enough S would have been present in koke to seriously degrade quality of steel made from Dannemore iron ore. Instead, Sweden's vast forest were used to make charcoal, which has nearly zero S and P.

The third is a critical business arrangement Swedish King made with some large iron and steel producers from the Vallonia area of what is today Belgium. Thanks to decades-long religeous wars, these large iron and steel producers were looking for a stable business environment. The Valloner produced primarily from Dannemora-type iron ores. In addition, the Vallonisk method of twice-purefying iron resulted in even less impurities. As export market evolved, most of this high quality iron went to Schefield, England as raw material for surgical instruments and watch springs.

Niklas

Pete,
I have a Husqvarna underlever hammer double made during WW2 time. It had never been completely finished and I had to do final fitting of locking lugs. Over years of use, it has become rather obvious that it was very likely assembled from "left over" parts. The barrels seem to have been made from two rather different quality steels, for example. One barrel is very rust resistant (like on all my old Husqvarnas), the other is not, exhibiting various areas of pitting corrision (which NONE of my others have at all!!).

While I have little direct information about outsourcing by Husqvarna, I would expect it. All Damascus barrels are reported to have been outsourced, for example. Ditto for early sidelocks and apparently receivers from Sauer. Don't forget Sweden's arms makers business relations with Remington, Nagant brothers, Mauser, Browning, the French, etc.

Niklas

Cabela's recently "acquired" many Husqvarna SxS's, both hammerless and underlever hammer guns. Most that I've seen are 12 gauge, choked F&F, 30" steel barrels, and all are marked "Simpson - Galesberg, IL" in very small letters by an electric pencil (importer???).

Prices vary from $250 to $700 in St. Louis. Models are #17 (underlever), #310 and #610 (hammerless).

gold40

Here is link to Simpson Ltd. in Galesberg, IL. There are many, many old guns by Swedish and other European makers. Simpson brothers are importers for a major exporter in Sweden. Normally, Simpsons deal in collectable military stuff.

Niklas

So, you got the one that was assembled right after mine
I am not surprised about outsourcing the damascus. I believe Husqvarna only had a small interest in sporting arms.
Simpson has a good reputation here. http://www.simpsonltd.com/

Pete

Pete,

Husqvarna manufactured (and still does) lots more than just guns. This includes sewing machines, including some very elobrate ones, motorcycles, bicycles, moter saws, tools, etc. Here is website to Husqvarna Museum http://www.husqvarna-museum.nu/ -- it has english language version.

As you probably already know, Carl Gustafs Stad (Carl Gustafs Town), aka Eskiltuna, is state arms maker for long time.

Niklas