A little history...
C.S. Osborne & Co. has been making upholstery tools since 1826. They started offering covered button parts, machines, and dies after purchasing Wade Button Company
in the early 1990s. Osborne is now the only manufacturer of 1920-style
machines and dies, but happily is going strong and doing great. Wade's
"1920" competitor, Defiance Button Machine Co., was sold off in pieces in the 1980s. Some of their tooling was bought by Puzant "Tony" Buzantian, who founded AB Precision Co. and manufactured button machines and dies for C & C Metal Products under their "Dyna Line" brand until his death 2015. C & C now re-sells Osborne machines and dies under the C & C name.
Handy Button Co.
(now Handy Kenlin Group) is Osborne's only domestic competition. Their
respective machines are somewhat compatible: button dies are
interchangeable***, but other dies are not unless machines are retrofitted. Handy's direct competitor was once Maxant Button & Supply Co., which manufactured machines and dies compatible with Handy Jr. No. 1 and 20. Maxant's machine button division was sold to Burgess Manufacturing
in the 1980s, then again to a Burgess employee in 2002, then...? —their
hand cover division was sold recently to their biggest customer and is
now Maxant Buttons, LLC.
Handy
emerged from bankruptcy in 2011 a much leaner company. Their focus is
now upholstery; button dies smaller than #22 (as well as non-button
dies) are no longer in production, and they dropped their once extensive
apparel and specialty button lines.
Osborne
saw this an opportunity to introduce their own line of smaller dies and
buttons. They hired a consultant to determine sizing for #16, #18, and
#20 based on Wade's old #22 tooling. HOWEVER... Wade's #22 sizing is
smaller than international standard; upholsterers who years ago
purchased Wade #22 dies also bought Wade's non-standard #22 buttons,
never realizing that sizing was brand-specific because everything worked
fine.
This leads to Osborne's sizing discrepancy:
Osborne
#16, #18, #20, and #22 dies are manufactured to Osborne's own
standards, which are slightly smaller than international standard.
Early on, we chose to modify the inside diameters of these sizes to
match standards that have
been in place since cover button machines were introduced in the 1840s.
You may request an unmodified die but be aware your choice of
compatible backs will be limited to a handful of "small diameter"
Osborne Wire Eyes and Flat Backs.
We
stock Osborne manual machines and dies exclusively because they are the
most versatile in the world —made in USA for over 150 years and built
to last forever. We are proud of our long partnership with Osborne and
look forward to many more years together! ...despite the weird size
thing.
***All
Handy button dies (both old and new styles) fit Osborne machines.
Osborne button dies manufactured after April 2010 fit Handy machines.
Shank ("stem") diameters of older Osborne (and Wade) button dies are too
wide to fit Handy machine bases without modification.