TBT: Eight Generations & 196 Years in Harrison

Throw Back Thursday.  Set off in a relatively quiet corner of the Town of Harrison is a company that started making the finest quality hand tools for upholsterers, auto trimmers, and relate trades one hundred and ninety-six years ago. Yes, we had to write out 196 years.

Established in 1826, the C.S. Osborne company has been located on Jersey Street in Harrison NJ for 196 years.  That is a lot of Thursdays.

Today, the 8^th generation of the Osborne family manages the company. The C.S. Osborne building has seen a lot of history including a 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, two World Wars, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, not to mention the Great Depression and the ups and downs of the economy and the present Covid pandemic.  The crafts persons who currently makes the quality hand tools at C.S. Osborne carry on a trade with deep roots and tradition.  That is not to say that everything is done as it was at the inception of the company.  Tradition has meshed with advances in technology and manufacturing.  As the Osborne family puts it “Experience is a great resource, and C.S. Osborne’s longevity allows it to maximize the best attributes of the past and mesh that with the advances in technology and manufacturing all for the purpose of producing the highest quality upholstery tools available.”

The manufacturing skills have been passed down from experienced employees of C.S. Osborne to the new generation of employees, and family management passes on the management skills to make this very special company the oldest active company in the Town of Harrison.

Please join us in celebrating C.S. Osborne’s longevity.  We are posting additional photos of the C.S. Osborne Company on our Discussion Board.  You can Sign Up for a Free Membership which will give you access to our Discussion Board.

You can take a look at the tools on the company's website.