Show me your vise

[Stash]

Good find! Mount 'er to something sturdy and get to work.

Steve

[jlpservicesinc]

ratfink310, great find. You couldn't have found a finer vise beginner or expert. the jaws look like new.  Congrats on the find. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Yep, ya done good. Did you ask her if she had any more of her father's Smithing items/tools?

[RatFink310]

Irondragon, she said that he used it to hold parts when he was welding stuff and basic vise holding of parts. She asked me what I was going to do with it and told her I am just starting to pick up blacksmithing. She was glad to hear that I was going to use it for what it was intended to be used. I did not ask about other tools as where she was living did not see any thing that would allude to him having a forge.  

[ThomasPowers]

Hammer's, tongs, top tools, swages.  Where a person is living and where the old falling down shed full of blacksmith GOLD, (it rusts), is need not be the same...

[KingAether]

Managed to get this for £10 p/inch last month, need to give the bolt and the handle a bit of love but other than some squeaking and rust friction its in great working order. Only 3" but it was a lot harder to track one down locally than it was the anvil. not sure if i want to just give it some lube where it needs it and let it be or take it all apart and clean it up. The foot is sitting in a 5kg weight that's solid in place

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I would take the screw & screw box apart and clean them of old lube & gunk, oil them and pivot points then put it to work. A 3 inch vise will do a lot of work and 30 pounds sounds like a good deal.

[ThomasPowers]

Cleaning the bearing surfaces, (cheeks & pivot, screw&screwbox) and lubing them well will make the vise/vice a lot nicer to use.  The rest is personal preference.

[KingAether]

I will get to it over the weekend, it couldnt definitely be smoother to use. I'm a bit torn on the rest really, i don't like the faded sky thing it has going on but i a shiny clean steel anything would stand out like a sore thumb given the rest of the shop(inc the roof, door and windows) is built from scrap and salvage. Ill have a think and come post  clean up picture when i decide

[ThomasPowers]

Clean to shiny and then soak in strong tea?

[KingAether]

I didn't know what was an option, ill have a look at tea'd steel on google and decide then, thanks for the idea

[ThomasPowers]

You may want to look up coffee as well.  Tea is the tannic acid so a peat bog soak should also work. (Don't include the screw/screwbox of course!)

I had one friend who cleaned, polished and then heat coloured his vise/vice and then clear coated it.

There is always paint as well.

Many people wipe down a cleaned tool with boiled linseed oil; but that won't colour it.

[rob_nc]

Hi All, I'm new to the forum and just moved into my new place late summer and I'm excited to finally have the shop I've always wanted.

This is my postvise that will finally have a place to be used.

Everything works fine and other than rust and cobwebs everything turns smoothly and all of the threads are intact.

This is what it looked like for starters

After soaking overnight in evaporust and a lot of wire brushing, it's looking much better:

 

After overnight soaking

 

I want to decide what to do for a finish before I reassemble. In the original pictures you can see that there was some blue paint on it but based on the quality of the painting I think it was added later and wasn't original. 

I like the raw metal and thought about maybe just clear coating the non-working parts and oiling the rest.

I've also got to put together a floor plate of some sort since I'll be using it on a concrete slab floor. I found a scrapyard fairly close by and need to go rummage around there to see what I can find.

Does anyone know who/what the "JB" on the one leg might refer to? 

Thanks!

 

[JHCC]

Welcome to IFI! If you haven't yet, please READ THIS FIRST!!!

That's a lovely vise you have there. I don't recall ever before seeing one with a replaceable post.

[ThomasPowers]

John Brooks, English, and they used blue paint in fairly recent times as I recall.  Also makes anvils!

Looks nicely "robustus" and ready for heavy use!  Where did you find it?  (I've found some british broad arrow sledges at a fleamarket right close to the TX/NM/MX border before, one date stamped from WWII and one from the 1980's.)

[rob_nc]

Thanks ThomasPowers, that's good info! I bought the vise from a farm when I was living in England and got to use it a little but it's been in storage for far too long. 

[ThomasPowers]

They don't go stale; a bit of clean up and oiling and they are ready to go for another generation or 4 of use.

[Duncan M]

I bought my first post vises the other day. there was someone selling blacksmithing equipment on Kijiji in Alberta. It was a great deal so me and my dad drove 13 hours return to pick it all up. Along with a few blowers and post drills I got three leg vises. 

  

The front one was tuned up by the guy I bought them from and works well. The next one works but is missing the spring and wedges for the mount. the back one was siezed at the pivot point. After much WD-40 and some falling wedges I finally got it moving. I continued working the jaw back and forth and It now pivots smoothly. they all are 3 3/4" wide and have good screws.