So if 1) the “tools” for the machines left Marlin on or before January 1898, 2) the new Savage manufacturing site had been selected but not yet turned over, 3) the new machinery for Savage to manufacture had been selected, but not yet shipped, and 4) Rick only has one work over rifle in his data for 1898 ... is this implying that all the 1895s were built by Marlin? ... or did Savage still produce some 1895s after 1898?
All 1895's were made by Marlin, to the best of our knowledge. There's no reason Savage couldn't have made some with the jigs and tooling they got back from Marlin, and maybe that would explain the handful of 9000+ serial numbers JTC saw in the ledgers. But that's pure conjecture, as far as we know Savage production started with serial number 10.000 - wherever that one is.
