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I Forge Iron

Dates on post vises


TWISTEDWILLOW

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Has anyone ever noticed dates stamped on their post vises? My big vise says original Trenton and lower is stamped 1902, i got curious and I looked on a couple of post vises I picked up last weekend and one of them has 1909 stamped on it but I couldn’t find a brand name on it, the other one had no markings at all, So I was wondering was Trenton the only one to date their vises?  or did iron city, columbian, fisher, Indian chief, or any others also do the same? D3F18611-205F-4937-8758-E8C95FB3BB0C.thumb.jpeg.630fa4937591e22b88b1b9731907e4a9.jpeg

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The flash on your camera is glaring out much of the detail. An oblique light source brings out textural details like stamped characters in much better relief. 

Chalking and wiping the surface helps a great deal as well. 

I've never seen a leg vise stamped with a date but there were so many people making them in the late 19th and turn of the 20th century I wouldn't be surprised at what was stamped on one. 

Neither of mine have name nor date.

Frosty The Lucky.

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thanks for your input Frosty! I’m just curious if anyone out there documenting manufacturing marks on tools may have noticed anything, I googled different post vise brands but I didn’t find any pictures of dates on any vises I just found pictures of various brands with their marks, 

I didn’t have the flash on but the sun is shining in the shop, I’ll try and get better pictures this evening, I tried the chalk trick but I think it hurt more than helped,  

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Thank you Stash! That gives me another place to start looking for marks on post vises. Also that answers my question so Trenton was not the only company to date their vises.  
 

Has anyone else found date stamps on any other brands Or even no name post vises? 

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18 minutes ago, TWISTEDWILLOW said:

Has anyone else found date stamps on any other brands Or even no name post vises? 

No but I HAVE found tramp stamps on dates in my single days. As is so often the case the search was better than the finding. :)

Frosty The Lucky.

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My vice has no markings on it.  

Quick question though, what are the ski slopes for? I have been doing this long enough that i can look at the most random object and usually say that would work for____. So figuring out a way to use them is no problem, i was just wondering if they have a specific purpose?

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I want to take a moment here to correct my post. My Fisher vise has the date (1918) CAST into the inside of the static jaw, not stamped as I wrote. As soon as I posted, I questioned myself, got the chance to check, and here we go. Lets now return to the previously scheduled program.

Steve

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