Original Trenton post vise

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Hello guys I hope I’m posting this in the right place I did some searching on here and didn’t find any post about this so I thought I’d start one. Hopefully I didn’t look over any other post talking about these.  This is my original Trenton post vise i tried to get clear pictures so y’all can see it. It’s stamped original Trenton and then under that is stamped 1902 and then has a number 1 stamped under that. It’s a little over 6/1/2” wide jaws and it weighed 128 pounds on my wife’s bathroom scale. Which I thought was odd most 6” and 6/1/2” I’ve found this size were quite a bit lighter? Anyways I was wondering if original Trenton was it’s own company or was this made by someone else like fisher? Or is this the same as the Trenton anvils? 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

If you do a search on your favorite search engine (like Google) without the quote marks "trenton vise iforgeiron.com" there are at least 5 threads on the Trenton vise. No matter who made it, I'd say ya done good on it.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Okay thank you I’ll try that. Nothing came up when I used the search tab up top with or without the quote marks. Ill back out and try from google. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

The forum search is not the best, to say the least.

[ThomasPowers]

Isn't that covered in Read This First?

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Yep...

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Sorry y’all I wasn’t trying to get on anybody’s nerves. I backed out like you said and it worked it pulled up several posts titled Trenton post vise I read through them all and found a little bit of the Info I wanted to know but not all. I’ll try searching that way some more using different words to see if I can find the rest of what I’m looking for. I Thank you for your help and I will go back and reread the read this first post because I apparently missed the part about the search bar so I probably missed something else to. Thanks again 

[lazyassforge]

Twisted willow, what part of Oklahoma do you live in? I’m down in the Lawton, Duncan,Chickasha area basically equal distance from each. I’ve never seen a vice marked Original Trenton but I didn’t pay all that much attention to them I guess. But one thing I’ve noticed is that the same jaw size vises might weigh quite a bit differently. Some blocky and others very lightweight.  I never noticed a big difference in the selling price because of weight. Hope this helped some! Bill Davis

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Hi mr Davis  I live outside of Stilwell Oklahoma right close to the Arkansas boarder. I’ve never been over to Lawton but I know round about we’re it is. I bought the vise for $150 it was a pricier than some others I’ve bought  but I liked it because of how big and heavy it was. I just didn’t know what the history was on the original Trenton post vises but I’m still reading through other posts trying to find out all I can. I’m very interested in tool company history on all kinds of stuff. I’m gathering up steel materials and plan to build stand/mount for it soon. Billy cochran 

[ThomasPowers]

I've called the light ones "gracile" and the heavy ones "robustus" to differentiate them. They do come in various heights and weights for the same jaw width.  I have one whose leg is twice the diameter of another vise's leg with the same size jaws.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

That must be what I’ve got here because this thing is almost twice the weight as a iron city I found with 6” jaws. I didn’t realize that they came in such a wide range. Would that be on purpose for different uses like portable farrier or military Calvary versus blacksmith shop or would that just be different heights and weights because they were made before modern standardized manufacturing? 

[whensparksfly]

TwistedWillow Nice find! If I locate something even close to that, I'll be sitting in the smith's good graces for a long time.  I am curious - looking at the 3rd (knob handle the threaded piece screws into) the and 4th (threaded piece and long turning handle) photos, to my completely ignorant eye, the interior ends look sort of broken.  Is that normal and functioning, or a bit that's requiring attention?

Thanks, and good luck with the forging!

wsf

[ThomasPowers]

Twisted, that would be a definite yes---both of those apply  Just like anvil stands need to be the correct height for the user, the vise does too. And just like you don't use a sledge on a 66 pound anvil---or make anchors on one you size the tools for the work intended.

I like to have both a large heavy vise and a light smaller one mounted on a workbench to cover the various tasks I do---it's a lot easier to turn the handle with my knee on a small one when I'm using both hands to position the work!

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Whensparksfly, that’s my fault I didn’t clean off the grease before taking the pictures it’s not broken I’ve just got it greased up pretty good so when I took it apart it kinda does look like broken metal but it’s just messy.

thomas, that makes since I have several bench vises that I use for my day job but they are all really big. I never needed a small one so guess I never thought about the utility of having small and large and different heights for different jobs. I see your point it sounds handy being able to close a vise with your leg when both hands are full because I definitely cant do that with my big bench vises. Also I read about anvils needing to be mounted at correct height but I haven’t read yet on the correct height for post vises that will be my next stop before I build my stand. Thanks for the tips.

[ThomasPowers]

Well it will be different for filing than for hammering on stuff in the vise.  I picked up an old "Shop Class" text book that has all sorts of good info on heights and positions for filing, feeds and speeds for drilling, etc. Handy to have in your shop if you do a bunch of different stuff and so can know it all, cost me a dollar at a used book sale as I recall.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

I’ll do that, it sounds like a good idea. I’ve already bought a pile of blacksmithing books that I’m starting to read through. I’ve seen a lot of talk about the anvils in America book so I thought it might be a good resource and an interesting read so I thought I’d pick it up after I’m done reading through the pile I already found, but I’ll definitely start looking for a shop manual  too Because I definitely do a little bit of everything in the in the shop and I’ll bet that it would come in handy for a few things.

[ThomasPowers]

For a more in depth coverage of machine tools you can look for a copy of "Machinerys Handbook", the early ones have a section on blacksmithing tools.  However for a general overview, designed to be used by people with no experience, the old shop class manuals can be a great resource and generally very cheap as shop classes are all but extinct.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

I know what you mean the local votech here hasnt offered any kind of shop or machinery course there for over a decade to my understanding They sold off all there machines, books and tools years ago. And I’m not aware of any other local votechs that do. But the votech in salisaw started offering a blacksmith class this year I thought about taking it and There is also these blacksmith brothers Ed and Brian Brazil that live in the same county as me that I met this summer when they brought a couple things in my shop for repair and they said they teach classes every now an I thought I’d take a class with them sometime to. But your right there is no shop courses to take. 

[JamesHall]

 I purchased this one the other day from an estate sale. It's stamped Trenton Vise and Tool Co. Trenton NJ. Are these the same brand?

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Yes it is.

 

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sails. ~ Semper Paratus