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The A.H. Fox barrels had to be Browned as the top and bottom ribs were soft soldered. If you put them in a hot blue the ribs would come apart. The Savage made, model B, could be hot blued as all components in those barrel sets were silver soldered.

Gene is correct about people doing there job for so long that their posture over time made them look as if they were standing and doing their jobs. This was particularly true in the wood room for guys that would sand forends. You would see them walk up an aisle with one shoulder higher than another from their stance at a spindle. JTC

Gene was there a patent on this critter? Many years ago I saw a beat up old 1899 with the same set up it was ealy enough to have the round rod rather than the flat with pin retainer. No markings on the rifle. I bought a few of these will see how they work looks like they need an alteration to the lower tang?

JTC, very interesting to know that some double barrels weren't soft soldered. I have seen a couple soft solder guns that someone attempted to hot tank blue, makes a real mess.

Tom, I have to apologize for not giving you thoughts on the tang safety as a possible factory modification more thought & research, I just thought if it were a tang safety they would say that and they would not use an aftermarket kit, and I had not seen anything similar from Savage -

I still think it more probable it was some sort of modification using a part similar to the one Numrich but while looking for a patent for the ambidextrous safety (which I did not find) I found a couple for a tang safety's, one that was assigned to Savage Arms, so it certainly can't be ruled it out

This one is assigned to Savage Arms and looks similar to the kit you pictured, but it looks like this one replaced the existing lever safety and I think these kits might just have attached to it. This one shows an added piece behind the tang attached to the wood similar to the kit -
Full patentUS02465699

This one is not assigned to Savage and does not show a separate piece added behind the upper tang (but the picture shows a tang that looks like it might be longer than normal). It does look like it attaches to the existing lever safety though.
Full Patent US02478892

Savage had must have looked at using a tang safety on the 1899 very early, this is a C. A. Nelson patent filed in late 1916 -
US01249175

I know from hanging out with some very knowledgeable SxS guys that the reason quality doubles are soft soldered is to make the job of regulating them easier. It's relatively easy to un-solder, tweak, re-solder, repeat as necessary to bring the barrels into regulation (hitting the same POI at a given distance). Cheap guns, typically U.S.-made hardware store quality guns (which, like it or not, the Savage/Stevens 311-series falls squarely into) were brazed (silver soldered) together in fixtures that guaranteed them to be reasonably close and sometimes actually regulated, but which method precludes any regulation after the fact- one of the main reasons they could be sold to a price point.

As for work related deformity, I can attest to what standing over a workbench for a third of a lifetime will do to your posture...