Frank Turley Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 A recent 'Turley Grad' purchased 3 leg vises from a New York farmer, and one turned out to be what I think is a rarity. It has jaws 9" in width and a scant 3" in height.. The raised letter markings are "GOLDIE" AND "133 ATTORNEY." He googled and found that the maker was Joseph Goldie located at 133 Attorney Street, New York, NY. I found Goldie in my Directory of American Toolmakers as a maker of "anvils, rules, and vises," 1842-1849. The son, Joseph Goldie, Jr., made "miniature vises and anvils," probably for jewelers. The big vise has the wrap-around U-shackle with its split and splayed mounting bracket. It has chamfered legs and pivot beam. It has a nicely turned "bell shape" on the screw box, not too unlike the Peter Wright's. I'm always interested in the history of leg vises and the early makers, because compared to anvils, there is a paucity of such information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timothy Miller Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Do you have any pictures I would love to see what they look like? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silkhopesmith Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 I'd be interested in pictures too. can you take one showing the underside of the jaw where the steel is welded on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Turley Posted September 5, 2011 Author Share Posted September 5, 2011 I will see whether my friend can forward photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Szlosek Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 I will post some better pics after I can get it cleaned up more, but here are some that I have already... I started cleaning it up the other night with a wire wheel when I found the "GOLDIE" impression on one of the leg chamfers. When I looked at it again in the morning I could see the "133 Attorney" underneath some remaining rust on the opposite chamfer. I recently got my hands on a sandblaster and some "coal slag" media so I will see what that can do about the spots I can't get to with my angle grinder. Unfortunately today is pretty rainy and the two bags of "coal slag" I had in the back of my truck are now wet. I'll have to wait for them to dry out. Some of the attached photos were taken before I started cleaning it up and some are during. You can see in two of the photos the welded jaws one of which has started to separate. In any case I'm pretty excited about my find! Especially since it was going to get scrapped at the end of the month! Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MLMartin Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Are the jaws de-laminating or are there set screw holding the jaw tips in more like a modern bench vise? Your new vise definitely looks like it had some specialty use with those jaw shapes I picked up a nice Goldie vise myself this summer in Rochester New York while at a summer Ironworking apprenticeship. Mine is only 6.5 inch and the jaws look much more like a typical post vise. Also my screw dose not have the nice ball end like yours. But a good vise none the less. I am happy the hear my new vice is so old and still in good shape. Some one had sawed off one of the mount arms so I forge welded a new arm on. I also need to make a new spring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MLMartin Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 Hope I posted the picture of it right, The little steel rule on the vise is 6 inchs long Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timothy Miller Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 I wonder if those wide jaws were made to work on hand saws. Like the later cast iron saw filers vises. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad White Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 Just this morning I was at an auction and was able to aquire a Peter Wright 1-0-12 anvil, an Indian Chief post vice, two cast iron - approx. 36 inch long, hemispherical shaped tools having a mushroom shaped keyway on the bottom side,( stove pipe form anvils???), an unknown make 6 inch shear on tripod, and assorted tinsmith tooling and such. Question is: where was Indian Chief vices made. Thanks for the help>Chad WhiteMt. Pleasant, Iowa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clinton Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 Those are both nice and 9 inches is big! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doc Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 I think this vise might have been made for some form of sheet metal work, more like as a small bending break for repetitive work. The jaws are just too light for forge work. Doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ten Hammers Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Chad, congratulations on the auction bud. Looking forward to seein the plunder and gettin it up and running. Perhaps another mini hammer in at Threshers. I haven't talked to Kieth about his Christmas schedule just yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ta2bill Posted October 1, 2012 Share Posted October 1, 2012 I have a sweet GOLDIE vise that is just sitting around my shop since I purchased it. Any interest in it? What kind of a value do these things have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 1, 2012 Share Posted October 1, 2012 About twice as much here as where I used to live and based a lot on the state of the screw. So putting it's location and a picture of the screw would really help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ta2bill Posted October 1, 2012 Share Posted October 1, 2012 Thank you for the advice Thomas! Here are some more pics to help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ta2bill Posted October 1, 2012 Share Posted October 1, 2012 Im in Spring Hill, Florida Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sask Mark Posted October 1, 2012 Share Posted October 1, 2012 Very cool. I love the stampings on the chamfers. I have never seen that before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ta2bill Posted October 1, 2012 Share Posted October 1, 2012 Yes, they are actually stamped in! Probably an early example from 1842 or so....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 1, 2012 Share Posted October 1, 2012 Screw looks to be in quite good condition for that old a vise. You will probably get more from a collector than from a smith though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VolcanoForge Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 Was Goldie manufacturer? Sure looks like they just took a PW and stamped there name on it. Maybe they purchased the legs from PW and did the finish work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan P. Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Frank- an interesting feature of old-old vices that I used to find where I used to live (London, UK) was that rather than the U-shackle attaching the vice to that Y-shaped thing, they had a tenon on the Y-shaped thing that went into a mortice on the vice itself that was held, like the shackle, by a pin. I have such a vice mouldering away somewhere, I will take photos when I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 We're all well aware of tenon mounts as an earlier form. Frank was looking at one I brought to one of his talks on post vises fairly recently. He told me it most likely was pre-1800 and as it was small, 3.5" jaw and light duty vise it probably came over from England as part of an immigrating tradesman's baggage. (I picked it up at Quad-State 3 years ago for US$20; but I did have to build the mount and spring for it---I did a tenon mount for it and still use it with my "old" smithing demo set up, (not the Y1K one though...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan P. Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 We're all well aware of tenon mounts as an earlier form. Oh, we are, are we? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 OK everybody interested in the history of the postvise that has done even minimal research on it or has listened to Frank talk about them here in the USA. (And Frank Turley is a noted demonstrator as well as running a blacksmithing school since the 1970's...) BTW are you familiar with James Watt's postvise in his workshop in the Science Museum in London, UK? Piddly little thing yet he changed the world using it. I have such a plethora of larger ones and accomplish much less... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Turley Posted July 7, 2013 Author Share Posted July 7, 2013 My Turley grad student, Nick, contacted me recently regarding the "Directory of American Toolmakers"* and that prompted me to google and recover this thread. In the course of discussion, the subject of the old tenon-mounted vises came up. I'm enclosing photos of my little treasure. I consider this vise to be an antique, and I do not use it. It has a broken "ear" the little projection to keep filings out of the works. Otherwise, it is in very good condition. There is lots of guesswork in discussing these vises. I assume that this is English made, because we find these in the U.S., supposedly as early imports. I had one that was stamped Sheffield. I assume that the age of the pictured vise is 1800 plus or minus 30 years, again guesswork. The tenoned vises were "composites." The box was a forge welded tube with a coil of square-sectioned stock brazed within for the internal threads. The stops, to keep it from turning. usually two, were brazed on.The external portion of the box was composed of perhaps 3 rings that were brazed together and then lathe turned. A careful cleaning will sometimes show lines of brass left from the original brazing. These old vises rarely exceeded a 4 1/2" jaw width. The tenon for the mount was often rectangular in section going through a hole in the fixed leg. This necessitated having a hole in the leaf spring. To tighten the assembly, the tenon had a carefully placed slot in it to receive a wedge. The pivot beam usually had an unthreaded, headed bolt with slot to receive a wedge, not a nut and bolt. If there is a nut and bolt, it was probably added at a later date. My pictured vise has a jaw width of 4 5/16" and an overall length of 36". *Directory of American Toolmakers, Robert F. Nelson Editor, Early American Industries Association, 1999.1,170 pages. The book is a fairly comprehensive listing of toolmakers working before 1900. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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