http://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/tls/1899226221.html

a foot operated legvise, with hardy hole. Price seems a bit high, but who knows.

very nice bolt vice good shape and decent die

looks pretty sweet i would love to have one, I would be more comfortable at a slightly lower price as well. I would like to see how tight it gets before I would but it, if it doesn't hold tight it would be pretty useless

I have used a bodged up one of these as a hot rasping vice for horseshoes and because of the simple design and leverage just a little bit of foot force holds very well better than I had expected anyway very handy to have a quick release/reset much less two free hands

As you will probably know, Wesley, one of the big name US farrier's was marketing one of these with a hydraulic action. Here in the UK one of our own big name farriers produces the old style hardy tongs. They are basically enormous tongs, one rein is short and goes in the hardy hole, the other is long and you sit on it while you hot rasp your shoe. You farriers and your hot rasping!

I have seen a ton of different versions for farriers, the type I like the best are just a basic spring action, step on the lever to open the vise and the coil spring does the rest. The hardy vise/leg vice are great for quick work, I use a visegrip with a hardy stem and old rasps for a wide mouth but it takes longer because of the adjustments.

farriers and hot rasping is almost becoming a lost art... these days nine out of ten will just take there cold shoe to the grinder, more and more don't even use a forge and that makes me sad.

speaking of hydraulic.. If I offend anyone here that uses this product Im sorry but at the last shoeing convention someone was selling their new product hydraulic hoof nippers!

maybe Im just old school and like to use these muscle things I was born with but I just dont understand these products. Sure it works, it could probably cut your car door open like the jaws of life! but I could nip a horse in the time they take to do one foot!

Well, I'll be! Overpowered AND inaccurate! I hope the fellow using those nips has good insurance!
And also, I'm not a farrier, but is he not "dobbing" that hoof? If so it is a practice very much frowned on in this country, and I presume yours as well.
Speaking of which, and as you will probably know, farriers here in the UK must do a forging certificate as well as a compulsory 4 year apprenticeship before qualifying, which means they can hot rasp like champs, even if they never do it in their day job.

Well as far as the nipping hes not hurting anything yet but there is still the rasping we dont get to see so heh who knows~

I very much support the UK system, Paddy here on the forums did two years at Hereford School of Farriery before he moved to the states for more training. I wish that we had something in place in the states like you guys but we don't at all, grab the tools and find a horse and you can call yourself a farrier. We do have different forms of certification; I'm a farrier classification through the AFA ( American Farrier Association ) but none of them are required to do the work, other than at the track where you need a track license but not a farrier license heh go figure.

I went to Hereford myself. I did a diploma in blacksmithing & metalwork but flirted with the idea of farriery until I realised that I don't like horses or the the people that own them (no offence, but I understand this is a common complaint amongst farriers; the horse owners).
I understand the AFA is well respected here in the UK, and I believe there is not much greater authority then your own Doug Butler, whatever side of the pond you come from.
Here's a link to the anvil tongs I was talking about, they're toward the bottom of the page:

http://www.handmadeshoesltd.co.uk/exclusives-DG-see-products.asp

Yea there was a "Working H13" clinic last year that a friend of mine attended where among the 15 fullers he made they did a quick demo of the hardy tongs, they work great but he had plenty of striking help for the 1.5" they were using lol I have seen a few sets being sold that are mostly aluminum, but I've yet to play with any.

The Kentucky Horseshoeing School uses Doug Butler's Principles of Horseshoeing (P3) book/bible for the course, slow read but the knowledge is unbeatable. Mitch Taylor the schools director/head instructor has done a lot of talks and clinics with Doug in the past.

Owners... the farriers bane.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the grooved portion of the vise is a "toe calk welding die" for "sharp shoeing." I have a couple of old such hardie/dies, and each groove has a vee shape. My understanding is that the room temperature toe calk is driven into the hot horseshoe via a "nib." The nib is a small sharp "spur" forged at one end of the calk; it holds the calk temporarily in place until a forge-weld is taken. The ground surface of the calk is semi-blunt until a welding heat is taken and then the calk is placed in one of the dies for welding in order to give it a sharp, wedge shape. The foot surface of the shoe is struck. The heels were also bent to 90º and made sharp, the medial wedge-length in the line of stride and the lateral calk 90º to the line of stride. The sharpened calks were primarily for winter ice and snow. Presently, we use tungsten carbide bits specially welded onto the the ground surface of the shoe [marketed as horseshoe Borium].

In the United States, the toe calks were formerly manufactured with the projecting nib. They came in different sizes. Toe calks are not used much nowadays, neither blunt nor sharp. They were popular in the early, agrarian days for shoeing draft horses which were drawing farm plows and equipment.

Posted by a retired farrier, now a teacher of smithery.

http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

Hey there,

I went to Hereford for a year and did the pre-farriers NVQ level 2 forging certificate.

Just wish i could go and do more there as it was an amazing place. The farrier / blacksmithing teaching was quite brilliant and alot of fun.

Frank, the hardies and dies you mentioned may be swedge and fullering bottom tools for flat bar stock to be fullered / creased for improving traction. Tool and fullered shoes.

The grooves in the leg vise for a farrier?, maybe could be used to pull over a source for a clip or set a tight angle for a heel calk, but that tool would not exist way back when as techniques were more traditional, you just don;t see that. It would be very handy for turning rod at tight angles for straw roof pegs, instead of opneing and shutting a leg vise. Bolts Wes, yes ofcourse.

Those nippers look really good. Especially when the horse decides to stand on the air pipe and that goes pop and then you get to go airborne for a while. I just can't see them replacing a pair of GE's somehow?. They look really cack handed and heavy, you just can't see well to nip carefully. For cattle oh yes.

Cheers,

paddy

I'm working out of a 150 year old blacksmith shop and just about all of the small parts in the place seem to be stored in wooden boxes marked "Sweets Toe Calks". I even found some of toe calks and a bottom tool with matching triangular grooves in a drawer together. I'll ask the former owner how those parts went together if I can catch him later in the week.

That's a very pretty vice in the first post, but that price I'd be afraid to use it.

I'm working out of a 150 year old blacksmith shop and just about all of the small parts in the place seem to be stored in wooden boxes marked "Sweets Toe Calks". I even found some of toe calks and a bottom tool with matching triangular grooves in a drawer together. I'll ask the former owner how those parts went together if I can catch him later in the week.

That's a very pretty vice in the first post, but that price I'd be afraid to use it.

Ya can't hurt it but it sure can hurt ya. Started with a light wight spindley one. Traded for one like the pic.
Over 100lbs. Jaws were shot so I replaced them with 1X2X5 crs. went to move it and found the jaws slam shut with almost no effort and with your palms in there. Ones I have seen here in WNC ran from $350-$500. Greatest thing for twisting.
Ken.