Terribleone1351 Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 Hey all! I recently picked up my first post vise. I have read through many many of the vise id posts on here and can’t find one with a screw box like mine. I am very excited about this as I have been hunting one for a while now. I cleaned it all up with a wire brush but could not find any markings as to help ID it. Although it is not going to hurt or help me knowing who made it, I always like knowing the history of my tools. Anyone have any insight as to who the maker is? I love restoring old tools and learning the history of the makers and the tools themselves. Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 Perhaps you might consider telling us which of the 150+ countries participating on these forums this postvise was found in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terribleone1351 Posted January 31, 2018 Author Share Posted January 31, 2018 I live in Marietta, GA. Just outside of Atlanta. This was found about 45 mins north Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terribleone1351 Posted February 1, 2018 Author Share Posted February 1, 2018 10 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: Perhaps you might consider telling us which of the 150+ countries participating on these forums this postvise was found in? Georgia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 10 hours ago, Terribleone1351 said: I live in Marietta, GA. Just outside of Atlanta Welcome to IFI..We won't remember this after leaving this thread and like Thomas said a lot of answers are location dependent. https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/53873-read-this-first/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terribleone1351 Posted February 1, 2018 Author Share Posted February 1, 2018 Anyone have any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John McPherson Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 OK, I'll bite. What makes you think any part of your vise is special? What are you seeing that we are not? Looks pretty generic from what I can see. Detailed pictures and explanation would be helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terribleone1351 Posted February 1, 2018 Author Share Posted February 1, 2018 1 hour ago, John McPherson said: OK, I'll bite. What makes you think any part of your vise is special? What are you seeing that we are not? Looks pretty generic from what I can see. Detailed pictures and explanation would be helpful. ??? All I am asking is if anyone has an idea on the manufacturer. I did not say it is special. That’s the problem. I am not seeing anything that gives me any clue. The screw box is not one of a Peter Wright, Columbian, or iron city. The mounting bracket is not similar to any of those either. And when you say generic, what is that supposed to mean? Each maker has their own styles on individual parts, and this one has no characteristics of any SPECIFIC maker that I can find. And what more detailed pictures do you need. This shows the screw box, mounting bracket, legs, base, and jaws. Your comment is not helpful in any way and in my honest opionion sounds like your kind of being a donkey(nicest term I could think of without cussing). All I am wanting to know is who makes it. There is a lot of wisdom and knowledge on this forum, I am trying to tap into it. I like to research the history of the companies on things I own. History really interests me, always has. Knowledge is power right? The more I can learn the better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 Actually his comment was pretty spot on. There were tons of companies making these, and many did not mark them, just like swage blocks and some anvils. There is a FB page dedicated to post vises that you may want to check out. And it does look generic for a post vise. It isn't unique like a Fisher double screw, or overly large, so yes, generic is a pretty good term to use. Personally I would have said a PW by the prominent ears on the jaws. And who is to say that all of the parts are original and have not been swapped over the decades? Sears sold replacement screws and screw boxes for post vises. I only recently found out that my big post vise was made by Iron City after owning it since the late 70's. Kinda cool to know, but it really doesn't matter to me who made it, just that it works for what I do. Googling Peter Wright post vise comes up with a lot of pictures that look like yours; mount, ears, bevels on legs, etc... Jumping on someone who asked why you don't think it is any of the common makers won't get you far here. Because like I said it looks like a generic post vise as a Google search shows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terribleone1351 Posted February 1, 2018 Author Share Posted February 1, 2018 8 minutes ago, BIGGUNDOCTOR said: Actually his comment was pretty spot on. There were tons of companies making these, and many did not mark them And who is to say that all of the parts are original and have not been swapped over the decades? Sears sold replacement screws and screw boxes for post vises Googling Peter Wright post vise comes up with a lot of pictures that look like yours; mount, ears, bevels on legs, etc... That’s is the information I was looking for. Thank you. If it’s a frankenvise, cool. I was just curious. And his comment did not help me. More detailed pictures of what? Detailed description of what? The comment was not helpful in my eyes. Did not answer any question or further my research. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charcold Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 From reading a lot of these post vice ID threads you might have an uphill battle without a mark. Maybe someone will recognize a small part of it and know the maker, but it can be an excercise in futility for what you get out of the information. I too like to know the origin of things, but after chasing down rabbit holes I sometimes regret the effort i put into it for the knowledge i gain. Post vices may be in that camp, thus the response you get from many people. Some people don't seem to care for Anvil id, I can understand the logic. Why waste 6 hours researching that could be spend forging. I personally spent a lot of time researching my anvil, post vice, etc. Its something I enjoy but something others don't, thus is life. The vice itself looks nice tho! The pictures you were asked for weren't a useless request. The size of the jaws, shape of the threads on the screw, etc can all tell a tale and potentially lead towards a maker. Let's say for a crude example 4 or 5 companies made that style vice, but none made 5.5" jaws except for 1. Generally when looking for IDs on tools I follow the same guideline as selling something on ebay, more pictures than you can even think of a reason for. What you dont think needs highlighting and spotlighting may in fact be the image or angle that gets you a proper ID. If only you knew how many times people posted anvil photos only to be asked to flip it upside down to see the underside to help with the ID. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 These are worse than trying identify 19th century English anvils; where over 200 different manufacturers made them and many used people trained at one of the big makers and so their anvils look very much like Peter Wrights or Mouseholes. Worse because at least the anvil makers tended to stamp their name on their product and many post vise makers did not, many times only a weight stamp can be found and many times not even that! (They were listed/priced in the catalogs I've seen by weight rather than jaw length). Marriages (I like the term better than Frankensteins as that indicates some crude rework to make the pieces fit---though I have seen those too...), seem to have been quite common so whenever I see someone saying the screwbox is PW so the vise must be too---when the vise is very much not like PW....makes me shake my head sadly. Shoot I've changed out screw/screwboxes on vises before and traded off a set as part of my deal for a large anvil as I had run across a trashed vise with a good screw/screwbox. (Back when a 4" vise could easily be found for US$20-25 in Central Ohio; no reason to spend a lot of work to salvage a trashed and abused vise body)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terribleone1351 Posted February 1, 2018 Author Share Posted February 1, 2018 Oh wow, see I did not know there were so many makers of leg vises. Everything I have seen there only seemed to be a handful of manufacturers. Thank you for the info ThomasPowers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holder Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 Why would one need such a large vise? Yes I'm ignorant of such things cause I'm new here. I have a small bench vise but it is a good vise, the jaws open six or more inches wide. How big of a vise do I need? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 Depends on what you plan to do. Doing small stuff like small stock twists, mild bending and such you don't need a big vise. Big work or even sledgehammering on stuff in the vise, you want a big beefy vise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 Your bench vise is most likely made from cast iron. Take a 6 pound sledge and give it a few whacks and you'll find it is now cheap scrap. Now I can go over to my 6.45" columbian and pound hot steel on/in it all day with no problem (It's mounted to a telephone pole sunk 5' into the subsoil and concreted in with the acorn on a 2'x4' slab of steel an inch thick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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