I recently helped a neighbor out and as a gift she gave me this leg vise that was in her barn when she purchased it from the original family. It was heavily covered with loose flakey rust in spite of it being stored inside. So after reading this fine forum for hours and hours, I decided to use my power washer sandblaster attachment and clean it up. The screw is in decent shape and aside from the ears on leg having a little twist (they are not square with the jaw) and the pivot pins missing nut (stripped threads from antiquity so nut is missing) it seems to be complete.
There is some mushrooming of the mating surfaces of the screw parts so I’m fairly confident the parts are original.
The only markings I can find are an upper case T in the center of both jaws. I’m a practical person. If I have a tool, I intend to use it. If this is something with a high value, I’d rather get it to someone that will appreciate it. Otherwise I intend to mount it to an I beam stand, give it a coat of wax or Penetrol and use it as God intended.
I appreciate any and all input.
The jaws are 5” wide and open to about 5-1/2”.
I think if I was going to be giving something the beating of a lifetime, I’d find an Elm log and mount it to that. In my experience Elm’s tangled up grain and hardness are a winning combination for abuse. If I was going for looks and hardness, I’d make a vertical grain butcher block of Maple and Walnut and band it with iron. It would be a real stunner.
