Old vise.......

Joe Tonich

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I don't have it mounted yet, but this vise came from my Grandfathers farm. I can't find anything like it on smeebay or any older tool sites. There are no markings on it that I can see. Anyone see one like this?

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I have a post drill press that was his also, but haven't taken pics of it yet.
 
Wish I could help you out on the ID, but I'm no help as usual. Very cool vise Joe. I wish I had some of my Grandfather's tools, but I think my Uncle got both of them.:D

Wes
 
Oh yeah a very common type of vice. It was used mostly by Blacksmith's back in the day. You can find them around a lot of old barns and tool sheds, and of course in museums and old blacksmith's shops. Another very common version of that vice was miniaturized with a handle added. Known as the Hand Held Vice it too was common in the blacksmith shop.

Just last weekend I saw two at the common ground fair. One was in a blacksmith shop they have on their fairgrounds, while another was in a blacksmiths trailer that he uses to go on the fair circuit. Yet another one I saw was at the Leonard Wood's Logging Museum in Bradley, Maine. I do have a picture of that one...well sort of. In the photo I took of the old blacksmith shop there, you can see the vice in the very left hand corner of this picture.

They are quite common as far as vices go, and not that hard to come by, but still it has some value, and the fact that it was your grandfather's has even higher value.
 
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Alright for some dumb reason this thing won't let me post a picture of it. We can do it another way until I can get the picture posting thing fixed.

You have to go here:

http://www.railroadmachinist.com/Sawmill-LM.html

Then look for the second picture down on the left column. That is a picture of the Blacksmith Shop. In the picture there are two vices as you show. The first is on the right side, just right of the chimney and just under the window. The second is on the left side, down in the left hand corner and just shows the top part of the vice.

They were so prevalent in Blacksmith's Shops that many had two as this shop did.
 
I think that is commonly called a "Leg Vice" and I'd LOVE to have one :D

They are used by blacksmiths, and my understanding is that they are NOT cast iron, but forged, and that leg extends all the way to the floor, so you can pound on it all day long and not worry about breaking it. Cast Iron vices break with too much pounding, and as they are usually bolted to the bench, the bench takes a pounding too. While this style is bolted to the bench the leg, setting on the floor, take a lot of the pounding.

Clean it up, it's a keeper! :thumb:
 
Gee, I haven't seen one of those since I was a kid, but our blacksmith had three or four of those scattered around his large shop, and as mentioned before a lot of farm/ranch shops (barns) had one of those too. One of my uncles had one in the equipment room of his horse barn too that he used to work on his harnesses plows and wagon, since he did all his farming and hauling with a team of horses. He never owned a car or truck in his life. I have no idea who made them but as Stu said, they were plenty strong and I never saw a broken one.
 
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Thanks Greg but you missed one. There are actually two in that photo. Anyway for some reason I am able to picture post again this morning. Here are the two vices pointed out.

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Cool, thanks a lot! :thumb: Just have to find a place to mount it. Mebbe today I'll get a pic of the post drill and post it. These things will be handed down to my sons, and hopefully be in the family for a long time. :D
 
Joe, that is a very neat find. And, as mentioned, there were (are) a lot of them. I've heard them called 'post' vice, they were usually mounted on a stump. Still good tool. I don't remember where I got mine but I've had it many years. As soon as moved into my present home, I mounted it right outside my shop door. Handy and valuable tool for many things.
 

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