Got a very nice old post vise from e-bay last week. it seems to be the same style as the colombians that I have seek but the only marks I can find are a date of "1897" and part of a brand name that starts out < V W & W but the rest of the mark has been hammered out. Anyone know the Brand? Thanks!

Ted :confused:

Ted,

I think that it would be beneficial to the rest of the forum if you could post some photographs of the vise and what is left of the logo. This would help us to be able to see what you have and give us a good idea of where and how to start our search for the information which you seek.

Best,

Archiphile

here we go a positive and a negative of the mark and the date. the name is in a diamond above the date. the other picture is the vise on the mounting post I welded up an next weekend it will get welded to the plate it is sitting on.

Thanks for taking a look

It looks like whom ever purchased this vise originally got it from Sears.

Link
1897 Sears Roebuck & Co. Catalogue - Google Book Search

The link is to the 1897 Sears and Roebuck Catalogue

I was reading on anvil fire that the post vise was so common that it was sold by weight a majority of the time. I looks that that was the case with your vise. Very few folks did not put their stamp on them .

my post vise is mark in much the same way as yours. in Anvils in America I found an anvil manufacturer named Sampson that was made in Cleveland Oh that is also marked with a diamond and vw&wh co inside the diamond...the initials stand for "Van Wagoner & Williams Hardware Co"

that is about all the info I could find about the company.
My post vise is stamped 1901

The Railway Purchasing Agent's ... - Google Book Search

That post vise does not look like a colombian as it has beveled legs and an ornamentally turned screw box. The mounting bracket looks a bit like a columbian one; however that's sort of like saying a car must be a Ford as it's tires are like those on another Ford...

Columbian's also tended toward the "u Bolt" mounting bracket attachment, though not all of them did so---I have examples of both methods in my pile of post vises.