The year ends with these three additions to the collection. I do have a penchant for very old dividers and the pair below pair fits the bill. They are 13" long, very heavily constructed with a three-leaf hinge with rounded "caps". The hip bosses are very heavy, one with a heart-shaped locking nut. The lock nut has created a slight groove down the center of the wing from 300 to 400 years of resetting. I'm estimating they are 17th. century or even earlier, but of course it is very hard to pinpoint age on a blacksmith-made tool. They were acquired in Ohio Amish country, so they may be of German origin. They certainly qualify as one of the oldest pair of dividers in my collection.
Next, a primitive, user-made pair of large (21") oak dividers joins the ranks of the other wooden dividers in the collection. It is fairly common in this type of wooden tool for the wing to be a simple piece of round iron stock, rather than the more typical flat wing of metal dividers. The lock nut is a simple eye bolt which passes through a supporting iron plate attached to the arm. Old, but very hard to age.
The final pair is far younger than his older brethren above. These dividers are marked with the name of the C. S. Osborne Co. and are a 10" model number 106. These are apparently still available from the company. Osborne predominantly manufactures leather-working tools. An interesting aspect of this tool is the two point arrangement of the hinge joint. These would appear to be easier to construct than the more common interlocking arm hinge joints. The locking nut is crude, but does show up on some examples of this model although a more solid nut is more common.
I'm thinking the next post of 2024 may shift gears to focus on wooden mallets, another one of my tool hoarding, excuse me, collecting weaknesses. Until then, to all a happy and healthy new year.
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