I recently restored a 50lb 4.5" Peter Wright vise. I was fortunate to pick it up along with a Vaughan anvil, my first two smithing tools. I used a drill type wire brush to strip off a layer of silver paint, then gave it a light coat of boiled linseed oil. The next challenge will be finding a solid place to mount it. Another site mentions that post vises were typically forged from wrought iron or mild steel. In this case I can see that the wedge for the bracket is wrought iron, so that may be the same for the rest of the vise.
