One way to hold a piece horizontally is to clamp the work in the drill press vise within the larger vise. This is especially handy for draw filing.

For odd angles, one can use the "chamfering vise" (Blacksmith Depot). My other two chamfering vises are homemade, one from a leaf spring and one hinged. These devices allow one to better see when edge filing, and they put the body in a better position at the vise.

On the Depot vise, I brazed on some copper jaw faces.

I have one close to this , However mine is cast iron or something of the sort . I have had to braze it as it was my GGpaws and was used back in the 40's .

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sam

Mine is much heaver and solid .

Thank you Mr Turley, I had never thought of that. For odd angles and tapers I split a piece of 2" round and welded the flat side to a piece of angle iron. It's kind of tricky to get it in place with the work but it holds great. This was not my idea I read about it somewhere.

Frank, a tool to hold a tool to hold a project,  Who would have thunk it. (grin)

Frank , write a book, please ! you know so much that needs to be passed on.

I like the one made with a hinged end. By the way I tried to order a chamfering vise from Blacksmiths Depot last October and they were back ordered and she did not know if they would be able to get any more. I wonder if it is a item Grant Sarver use to make for them?

I'm not sure who makes the chamfering vise. I've had mine about four years. When I received mine, it had the wrong angle for my type of hardware work which is usually 3/16" or 1/4" plate. I sparked the vise and found it was made of mild steel, so I removed the spring and hot forged the jaw angle to my liking; then reassembled.

 

With the proper angle, the worker can see better and is filing horizontally or at least, close to horizontally. Without the chamfering vise, the worker is low down in posture, looking and "filing uphill."

I found a similar solution for my setup; i clamp my little 13lb bench vice in the integral bench vice on the side of my harbor freight work bench so i can hold stock horizontally for hacksawing and for other angles not possible with the built in vice.

Greetings seasoned blacksmiths,

 

My personal favorate is a small vise mounted on a plate of a wilton swivel vise. (expensive)     One method that I show my students is to weld two squares of 1/4  plate in a "t" form and drill holes to mount a inexpensive drill press vise to the top so that it can rotate 90 d  .  You now can use it in your post vise in almost any position.  ( the plates should be aprox 6in square)   If you add to your work bench a versa-vise ( a cam lock multi position vise) you should be good to go ..  They now make knock-offs of the orginal versa-vise  Check out ebay 

 

Jim

For drawfiling knives I generally use a piece of 1x4 clamped in my big postvise and then clamp the blade to that with C clamps.  It allows me to bear down on the file with the blade supported all along the length by the edge of the board underneath and given that most of the knives I do are wider than a 1x4 the wood does not get in the way of working edges.

In one of the first sessions of knife chat I showed a dirt cheap way of hold a blade (or anyother item) for filing sanding etc. i screwed it to a section of wood held in a vise. Could have been laid on a table, lap etc.