New post vise and restored Parker swivel jaw vise

[Justin Topp]

Today I have some vises to display. First is a 4” Columbian post vise that I found for 25$. The stand is nice and heavy so I intend to cut it down for a base for my belt grinder. Threads are in great condition and it closes firm and straight.  One of the wedges was a United States Navy MK2 kabar knife which I thought was neat. I’ve been told probably ww2. 
 

the next vise is a Parker number 371 swivel jaw vise. Coming in at 39 lbs with 3.5” wide jaws.
 

After a ton of hassle with rust converters and oil. I managed to free everything slowly. Than I welded the swivel than ground it. Since the cast iron had chipped and it couldn’t clamp without the jaw lifting. Now it works well. And brazed a crack in the body at the back of the swivel jaw. Then i wire wheeled and painted it. Gun blued the non painted parts. I think it came out nice. It’s a pleasure to use the vise 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Very nice! I used to have a printiss that had a swivel jaw like that, 

that Columbian looks very nice too! I’ve never found a Columbian post vise but I have a few of their bench vises and they are pretty good vises so I imagine that their post vises are pretty good also! 

[Justin Topp]

Thanks!  I have a prentiss jewelers vise. That’s also swivel jaw. But the jaws are only 1.75”. I may be purchasing a larger prentiss swivel jaw soon…. 
 

of the 9 post vises I’ve owned. I believe 6-7 were Columbian. By far the most common I have found. There has been a few not Columbian branded that were still made by Columbian. For other sellers 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

That’s a good point about rebranding, around here I’ve found quite a few un marked post vises that could have been made by anyone. 

  the marked ones I’ve found and used were Trenton and iron city, I have seen Indian chiefs and a couple other brands but never bought them, but for some reason no marked Columbian post vises?, I’ve came across their anvils though. 
 
 Come to think of it I’ve owned two swivel vises, Both were printiss one was a 4.5 or 5” but I can’t remember, it was around 40# a nice mid size and a good vise, the other was a large 7” around 200 pounds but it had significant damage and I didn’t keep it very long,  i ended up giving it or selling it  to a guy who wanted to repair it. 

 

[Justin Topp]

Indian chiefs are Columbian. Odd to see no Columbians. They were often marked only on the mounting brackets which got lost often. That could be why. But still weird 

 

im looking to possibly purchase a 7” prentiss swivel jaw. With a chunk out of the slide. That’s an easy enough fix though 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

That’s interesting I haven’t read that about Indian chief vises. I’ll have to do some research on them. 
yeah I don’t know either on the Columbians I’ve seen pictures online of their marking on their mounts but for what ever reason I have yet to find around this area. 
 
both of the printiss I had were broken on the slides, the smaller one had an excellent repair done that you could barely notice unless you were really looking for it.

The bigger one had snapped the slide clean in half in the middle and someone who didn’t know what they were doing got after it with a welder and botched it up worse lol. 
 

I already have a 8”, a couple 6” and several other vises all in good shape so I didn’t want to fool it. 
 

Anyways I can’t wait to see your 7” when you get it! 

[Justin Topp]

I like restoring bench vises and any excuses to braze things are taken haha. Prentiss are the best looking swivel jaw in my opinion. So I think I can make it whole again. There’s about half of the last 4” of the slide missing. So some plate steel brazed on should fix it nicely 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Sounds sweet! Make sure to take before and after pictures! 

[ThomasPowers]

I once had a Columbian with all the original stampings, it was on the back of the back, (stationary), jaw. Columbian, Cleveland OH; sold it on at a SWABA, (now NMABA), meeting as I had about a dozen vises already.