Need help identifying a vise I just got. It is 42" tall with the bend in leg so maybe 43 or 44 when straighten out. Jaw are 5 1/4" wide. Here’s some pics. Thanks for your time.
You have a beaut, and an ancient one. Here’s why:
I just took a class not too long ago with Thomas Latane on making a vise, he went through lots of different photos explaining a few techniques and we made a good part of the vise. Looking at what you got there, I’m super jealous.
The threads, although look a little torn, I’m going to shoot this image over to Tom and see what he says but it’s interesting how they start out at an angle and grandually get rounder. Do the threads at the end round off or is it an angle and straight in all the way up?
Second image, the vise. Those are forge welded jaws on the jaws of the vise, you don’t see that very often. It’s hard to date it, but as far as I know, I would say early 1900s for that sort of style. Additionally, the gear box is forge welded, you can see the line there as well.
The eyes of the vise you can see are split and drifted, but I’m surprised to see the forge line all the way up and down below that slit - from what I understand, you wouldn’t want to slit the whole thing. That almost leads me to believe the whole thing is two parts, and the holds there are actually forge welded in (I think I can see lins on the inside of those as well.
I’m going to study these some more, aldeez, but these are amazing pictures - you did an awesome job cleaning it up. Beautiful tool.
Follow up - do you have the mounting plate or no? Where’d you find it? Condition when you found it?
Thanks! And the legs appear to be made of 4 or more pieces. I got it from a guy in Michigan. $100 was what I paid. I was going to weld the jaws up and square them off. Then I started look at it and it look hand forged to me. I will get you some close ups of the area around the eye.
No missing plate and spring. Would love to know the style of the mounting plate. So I could make the right one for it.
Question. What can I put in it to protect it. Beeswax?
I wouldn’t weld on that just to preserve authenticity unless it has welds already. Protect from rust? I would say go the route of light coat of wd40 and wipe down with a rag.
Oh I’m leaving it as is. And thanks again. Going to buy another one that I can make square
And it’s 65 lbs