Where do you guys find them?

They look/sound like the cats meow!

Cant even find them on ebay, im guessing few were made, or they are so darn handy people dont let them go????

i got mine out of a flower garden
i think over all the large majority of the step vises were cast so they are more breakable i have come across 3 working ones and 5 broken ones so far
and unlike the post vices that more or less any shop could make the step vise's were more of a specialty tool
dont get me wrong i love having one
but they seem to be more used by farriers and shops that made carriages so those are the things i would look for

Like Red said, you see them around here from time to time. I passed on a mint Green River one a few years ago for $100 and have been kicking myself ever since. A tailgater at the last New England Blacksmith meet had a fair condition no name for $75, had an interesting curved step/ cam mechanism to the treadle.

I suspect that if you are in old farm country near old manufacturing areas they might be more common as they were often used as horseshoing vises.

NC forge makes a failry inexpensive step vise fro farriers I have had mine for years and will keep it.

Here's one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/320923194953?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

I generally see one or two at Quad-State each year; as we have folks coming to Quad-State from out of the country just to buy stuff to equip a shop I would suggest you look there too since you are even in the same state!

I had one and didn't like it. Traded it off to another smith. It's hard enough for me to stand on both legs and work. Having to keep pressure on a pedal sucked big time.

here is a good one ....http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=221145443159

The thing you guys are talking about is called a calking vise. They were and still are very handy for welding toe calks (especially sharp) onto heavy work horse shoes as well as pulling toe clips.

To best of my knowledge that was the main idea behind their development and any other uses could be pretty much done with a regular leg vise.

They are a big score if you can find one as they are pretty rare.

I bought one at SOFA this year. Have heard them called horse shoe vise which would be a calk vise also called wagon makers vise as they had bolt heading swages and an adjustable length stop to make bolts. The jaws come out and the swages went in