Yeah, Husqvarna started as a rifling works in the late 1600s, 'stealing' the job from Jönköping who had gotten a royal warrant for the manufacture of rifles. See, Husqvarna had easy access to a swift-moving river and accompanying falls, so water-power was abundant. In the 1800s, it got turned into a 'weapons manufactory', making, among other things, a Swedish version of the Remington Rolling Block, the m/1867, at the same time turning from a privately owned concern to a public stock company.

Around about 5 years later, diversification began, starting with ovens of various kinds, at the beginning wood-fired, then quickly followed by probably the biggest thing they ever made alongside guns, that being sewing machines. Just before the turn of that century, they started an iron casting factory which, in the 1940s, was the biggest in Europe. Beyond the ovens, they made all SORTS of things both for the home and industrial use, from pots to manhole covers and anything in between. Around this time, they also got into bicycles, and a couple years later, bikes. The first lawnmowers came around 1918. There was even consideration about the car market towards the end of WW2. That didn't go anywhere, though.

Around about 1960, they started to 'restructure', the bane of companies in my opinion. They sold off bicycle- and bike-making as well as outboard motors manufacture to Monark, another Swedish company. They also started to pull out of gun-making, if not as quickly. Instead, there was R&D done in various other fields, one of them microwaves, and they were some of the pioneers of microwave ovens. By 1970, there was no more weapon manufacture going on, having sold all those interests to a government holding company, except for a very small number of hunting rifles sold. And in 1979, Electrolux bought it all. End of an era, as it were. Of course, things in the business world isn't that easy, and in 2006, it was made into a company of its own, again, now registered in its own name on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, and with various international divisions, in among other places Nashville in the US and Ulm in Germany.

Having served in the Swedish military, I've used many things with the Husqvarna markings. SMGs, AR(battle rifle)s, off-road bike, cooking utensils, you name it, and machine tools galore.

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Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-Covered Balls!"