A childhood friend of mine lives in his late Grandmothers house and for as long as I can remember there has been a blacksmiths vice in the shed there.Since becoming interested in blacksmithing about ten years ago I have been asking if he would be interested in parting with the vice, but his answer has always been no as it belonged to his great Grandfather. A reasonable answer I guess but frustrating as the vice just sat there on the floor and was never used. I went and saw his mother recently and asked her thoughts on it, well, she said that she was the current owner of it and that I was welcome to take it as it would be put to good use. As your can imagine I am very pleased, it is a 6 inch model made by Atwoods of Stourbridge England and is in very good condition. I have attached a before and after photos

 

Cheers Ian

Beautiful vise and hopefully Grandpaw would be happy that it is going back to doing what it should be doing, rather than collecting rust.

 

Remember his Grandfather and Mother everytime you use it. Hopefully your friend doesn't get too mad that you are putting it to use.

 

Mark

Great looking vise. I very much like the decoration on the front leg. It is nice a bold. There is a small bit of filled decoration on the upper leg of my older post vise.

how did you clean it ?

It's a beaut alright!   Looks MUCH happier in it's new home too...

cleaned up wonderfully

I was a bit disheartened when I went to pick it up as I hadn't seen it for some time,but it cleaned up well with a wire wheel and an oily rag. Hope to install it on the weekend.
Cheers Ian

I'm curious as to where it is marked Atwoods Stourbridge, Also, I'd like to know whether the British coat of arms is stamped on it. When I was in Australia, I noticed that most of the vices had a slight chamfer on the legs, whereas in the U.S., the Peter Wrights had a deep four sided chamfer on the legs. I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that the slightly chamfered legs were Peter Wright vices, but they had changed their way of manufacture. The conformation of your Atwoods and a Peter Wright is nigh the same, except for the leg chamfering.

The other thing that is interesting about the chamfer besides it's being only on the front edge is that its not continuous. It has what is called a stop check above the chamfer. This is an affectation from 16th century house framing that was used as a decoration on much of that periods iron hardware ( think dovetail hinges) to aesthetically connect the iron with the rest of the house. 

 

I find this interesting as it seems sort of a decorative through back since the vise is certainly from a later period.

Explain more about stop-checking. I can't picture it on a hinge. A private message is OK.

 Congratulations. Nice job cleaning it up ! I'm still waitng for mine to come along...

Great information Frank and doc, I thought I would post a few more pics showing the decoration and stampings, before I install it today.

 

Cheers Ian

Frank, 

  Here is an example of stop checks on a hinge 16th century to early 17th century dovetail hinge.

 

http://peterrossblacksmith.com/images/home-slideshow/placeholder-site-dovetail-hinge.jpg

Thank you Ian and Doc. Good photos and good informaion.

Forgot to add the weight.....105lbs

 

Ian

great looking vice!!!!!  great score!