They work out ok if you mount it into the hardie, just prior to heating the workpiece, then use that to shape the steel stock with a (bending/scrolling) jig. No, you really don't want to "forge" atop the anvil face with the banch vice held atop the anvil.

I do see this style of set-up among blacksmith at a craft fair/county fair etc. where they forge the workpiece, then set the vice (in the hardie) to perform a number of tasks.

I guess I do this as I was shown this method by the fellow who instructed me in the art of blacksmithing. It just feels natural to me. I'd probably never had tried this if it wasn't for him.

For arguments sake, I do see planty of smiths forging atop the anvil fave WITH a hardie cut held in place by the hardie hole. They generally give quite good reasons as to the "why", but I admit I woudn't want to try that as I am accident prone.

I took a forge up to my Daughter's place for Turkey day; but didn't bring a vise. I had picked up some 1/2 sq stock that had been cold twisted, fabbed into a railing and then baked when a house had burned down---cheap stock at the scrap yard.

I was going to forge some tentstakes from it as it was dirt cheap but wanted to remove the twist. I found out that a Ford wrench (https://www.aircraftspruce.com/pages/to/wrenchs/fordWrench.php) I had picked up at the fleamarket for a couple of bucks had the handle fit catty-cornered in the hardy hole perfectly. So I set it to the correct width and then put the hot steel in it and used another wrench to "untwist" it.

Worked so well it may be dedicated to that task in the future

I love to tinker with new "tools" I have discovered as well as new methods. Sometimes they pay-off, and sometimes they fail miserably. I get easily bored making the same thing over and over with the exact same method.

Heres mine
I use it right often ,has 3 1/2 " jaws

I also did a BP on "anvil hold downs" and included pictures of my hardy hole vise setup I use at demos for twisting and such.


http://s64.beta.photobucket.com/user/trying-it/media/002.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2

http://s64.beta.photobucket.com/user/trying-it/media/003.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1

I knew I had a picture of this somewhere. Erin Simmons of Cloudy Draw Forge in Placerville CA makes these. I'm pretty sure the plan is to throw a leg or knee onto the long handle to hold work for hot rasping.

I believe he taught a class making them. Calls it a Tong Vise.

I have been watching this a couple days and finely remembered my camra so here are some other pictures of things for holding stuff on the anvil. This is pretty self explanitory, like a hold fast.
These are pictures of a vice that clamps across the anvil.
This is an actual hardy hole vice. It is set up for farrier work.

having no time ( read "being to lazy") to build a proper stand for my blacksmithing wise, I just inserted the short leg in the hardy hole of a spare anvil which also need a stand :)

that leg wise is the most popular model around here and it has a short leg, it is not broken, that like that from birth.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.289928167720933.63430.146477635399321&type=1
Third image from the left, top line. Blueprint of a portable forge, lower left.
Looks like a hand vice crossbred with a postvice, that indexes into the hardy hole of the anvil.

I think sometimes the leg was intentional cut off because the vise was being used loose as a clamp to back up bars will riveting together assembles.  The leg would just have gotten in the way. 

I just became a member so please forgive the few year late response, but I don't currently have a vise and need something to hold while twisting smaller metal right now. I just drew up a hardy hole vise while at work that I will be making shortly. 

I would love to be able to look at the pictures previously posted for better references or design but unfortunately they won't load anymore. 

I'll try to upload pictures when I get mine compete. 

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. I'm horribly tempted to call you Ren but I'll resist.

Post pics of your drawings, we can help evaluate and make suggestions, some of us have been interpreting drawings a long LONG time.

Unfortunately a change of software a while back lost a lot of good info, especially pictures. Some can be found by admin but it's a major PITA on a good day.

Maybe some of the guys who posted their tools earlier will do so again for us.

Frosty The Lucky.

 John, I hate to be the dumb one here.......but, I gotta ask. The vice in the first pic. How does it work? Does it go in the hardy, across the face, or both? Is the brass piece a spring to open the jaws? And what might it be used for? I really like the looks of the build, but I just can't wrap this ole brain around it use. Sorry if this is obvious to all.      Thanks                Dave

Dave51B - took me a bit of head scratching before my first cuppa,

But imagine you are holding the contraption in your hands. You are facing the point of the horn (heel) now just lower the thing onto the top of the anvil. The brass thing is a spring-loaded toilet paper roller - holds the jaws open.

So yes, it lies across the face.

As you tighten the clamp against the sides of the vise, the "working jaws" close on your work piece.

If I have erred in my analysis, let the ridicule commence.

Robert Taylor

The drawings are very crude, but here are some of the things I'm planning. My anvil is a long piece of railroad rail attached to a 150 pound tree trunk, so I don't have a hardy hole. I was going to drill a 5/8s hole and weld a nut underneath, using 5/8 bolts for all the hardy hole tools. 

However I also obtained, legally, a piece of iron they use to hold the track to the railroad tie and the square holes in it are 5/8 also. This has me thinking of anchoring that plate on another stump and drilling a 1" wide hole under it for the hardy tools to fall into through the plate. 

I'm undecided on the direction I'm going right now. 

I forgot to mention I saw a guy on YouTube using a pair of vise grips welded to a plate and the plate was welded to a hardy hole piece which he used to hold his round stock while he worked it. I might try that first for the anvil, and the vice contraption on the hardy hole plate I mentioned earlier. 

A small machinist's vise is really handy if you put a hardy stem on it.  You can even clamp the stem in your bench vise so you can hold things in a variety of positions.

I like that Vaughn T, and I like the way those jaws taper down.

Mostly a farriers vice for adjusting shoes.

 Thanks, Robert and John. I remember seeing a holdfast with a toggle link, and adjustable screw, that fit into the hardy hole. I had thought this may be similar, but that just didn't seem right. I am going to blame it on ...not being a farrier...    Life is Good in my little world                      Thanks again                          Dave