Unique C.s. Osborne 1876 Draw Gauge

[chriscraft]

I was just in Door County area here in Wisconsin and due to the inclement weather we decided to visit the many antique shops. I found this old style wooden handle draw gauge I've been wanting for a while. The difference in this one is that the blade mounts by tightening two bolts rather than the typical hand screw type. It has the Pat. date of Aug. 1 '76 and after doing a little research all I can find is this was the first date (1876) that these draw gauges were patented. It has in small lettering under the date "REISSUED" and I can't find any other photos that show this or this style blade mount.

Has anyone seen one or better yet, Have one to compare? Chris

[bruce johnson]

CC,

Interesting piece. I haven't seen a patent or example like this one before. My total guess on this is that the original blade slot broke out (not uncommon) and this was modified. A few things tell me that. The tapering grind to allow clearance for the two bolts. That is the most used section of the beam and full width is going to feed better. The plate that the bolts go through has no shim so the only pressure on the blade is from that plate squeezing the blade. The slot appears too narrow front to back for a stock Osborne draw gauge blade so it probably was fitted with an improvised blade.

I have had several with the broken out or cracked blade slot. A little excess tension on the screw and that can bow out or crack the slot. The closest I have seen to this had two screws tapped into the very edge of the slot front and back and the bolt heads somewhat held the blade. This appears to be an interesting fix.

The 67 on the handle is a matching number. The matching original beam would have the same #67 on it. The common place is the bottom part of the slot frame on the beam. These were all individually fitted and mated beam and handles. The early ones had numbers, letters, or patterns of awl pricks on the mated beams and handles so as they went through the finishing stages in bulk they could be matched back up for final assembly. Somewhere along the line they all adopted the interchangeable parts manufacturing process and built tools and bench machines en masse without individual fitting.

[chriscraft]

This is pretty interesting Bruce. I also thought it might be a bench made fix with these two bolts. I need to repair this or find another replacement beam with the early C.S.Osborne & Co. stamp. Can't see any 67 number stamp on the bottom of this one yet but I need to clean it up.

I just found this on the Davistown Museum site.

Toolmakers Information for C.S. Osborne & Co.

Osborne succeeded William Dodd after marrying his daughter. the "Est. 1826" date refers to the maker prior to Dodd. In 1906, the company moved from Newark to Harrison, NJ, where it's still run by the Osborne family. Charles had a brother, Henry Frank Osborne, who worked with the company prior to setting up his own in 1876. Patents include a washer cutter attributed to Kirkland 11 October, 1875 (invalid date) and a leather cutting gauge, patented 1 August 1876, repatented 17 July 1877. In 1960, they acquired Mound Tool Co.

Identifying Marks

C.S. OSBORNE &CO./NEWARK, N.J. (sometimes without city line, sometimes with "EST. 1826" or a patent date); C.S.O. & CO.

General Information

This company is one of many mass-producers of the area at the time and America’s most prolific manufacturer of leather-working and leather-cutting hand tools. The photograph below is of a leather slitting cutter (ID# 63001T10), marked "Osborne Co Newark NJ Est 1826 Pat Aug 13, 76 Reissued July 7, 1877". It is one of many Osborne tools in the Davistown Museum collection.

Bruce, after looking at my draw gauge in better lighting, I was able to see the faint lettering under the word " REISSUED" near the edge. Most of it is hard to make out but I can see the 1877 date at the end. So I can only speculate that going by the deeply struck first date of Aug 1, '76 and the lightly struck reissued date. This must be one of the early C.S. Osborne draw gauges that were produced from 1876-1877. Then after the new 1877 paten received this weak strike. I also read that these early versions were made of steel and the deluxe versions came with rosewood inlayed handles. Nice to know this one was the better one of this era.

I can't wait to start using this 138 y/o leatherworking tool and keep it within reach on my work bench.

Edited August 22, 2014 by chriscraft

[chriscraft]

This C.S. Osborne Draw Gauge measures 4.5 inches across or 5 inches diagonal.

It's hard to make out but I do see what's left of the top section of numbers 1877. Not sure what anyone else can see. Maybe doing some biolistic investigation where they use magnaflux treatment to see the steel grain pattern on pressure applied serial numbers. But I won't go that far.