grogel,
The Savage 99 is about my least favorite rifle, that said, I am very interested in firearm finishes. I believe the lines in the first photo are forging marks and I have seen them in Colt, S&W, Marlin etc.mostly on flat surfaces and may be more apparent with the early finishing techniques (burnishing rather than grit polishing?!) may bring them out. (I have succesfully polished and rust blued these marks with no visiblility. They can show horribly with re-case coloring)
(Poor snapshot that shows forging lines in 1913 vintage Colt New Service, charcoal blued?)
There are a lot of assumptions abut early finishes and I've heard many, many folks that seem assured of their knowledge, but so little is even known about Winchester finishes (certainly the most studied and most factory verified) that most instant answers are conjecture. I have been revisiting my own reseach and writing and find much of it based on repeating others rather than original source material?!?!
The answer may be in early Savage technical material, but until someone affords it the research and dedication theat Mr. Petrov has done with his specialty, all you are going to get is speculaion and conjecture.
Sure wish I had better answers.
Your photos offer insight and are great for visual comparisons, unfortunately the color and saturation can be instantly altered by changing the camera exposure, which I often do to present a different 'look' with the same photo.
Ken is probably correct, as is sxs about wear examples, but that has to do with metal type and manufacture as well as finishing process.
Please do keep after it and let us know what you find.
