Post Leg Vice?

[CatMom84]

My husband and I found this old vice in his grandfather's old woodshop several years ago when he passed away.  Is this a leg post vice?  Can anyone tell me anything about it.  We love antiques, but know nothing about this kind of stuff.  We just thought it looked too cool to leave behind at the time.  Thanks!

[CatMom84]

Super embarrassing... I typed vice instead of vise... multiple times.  Ugh!  Please forgive my tired brain, haha. 

[Frosty]

They're called either a leg vise or post vise. First for the leg that connects it directly to the ground so forces generated by hammering are conducted into the ground rather than absorbed by the vise. Post vise because they were often if not most often mounted to a post. Either is as correct enough.

Yours is missing the mounting plate, bale, spring and handle.  The bale holds the spring (black in the pic) and mounting plate to the anvil jaw with two wedges, red in the pic. The handle is typically threaded on the ends and the balls screwed on, sometimes "locked" in place by buggering the last thread with a punch so it screws on with force but won't work loose in use.

This is my 4" vise right after I finished forging a new spring and grinding the wedges. It was all cleaned and brushed so I panted it my shop colors and took the pics right after assembling it. 

It should give you a good idea of what a complete leg vise look like and what other parts to look for in Grandfather's shop. If you can find the mounting plate and it has the maker's mark, it will up the sale value if you wish to sell it. Mine has a C making it probably a Columbian. Always add the qualifier "Probably" because mounting plates and bales were the most common thing lost, and new ones might have come from anywhere. 

The easy way to replace the handle is with a piece of round steel bar that fits through the hole easily, tap it on both ends to accept a nut about 3 larger, screw them on AFTER the new handle's inserted in the vise! Then weld the end of the nut to the rod and grind it into a ball. 

The best way to gage it's size is by jaw width. Measuring yours from the ground vertically to the other side of the jaws is their width. Some folks are interested in weight a bathroom scale is the best way to have an answer. 

I was just about to submit my response when your latest post opened. Heh, heh, heh, Don't sweat it, hardly any of the kids reading this know the difference. IF you don't spill the beans. We see it so often we hardly ever notice.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Welcome from the Ozark Mountains.

The most important parts of the post vise are the screw (the part the handle attaches to) and the screw box it fits into. If they are in good shape the vise is worth restoring to working condition. It's very hard to tell who the maker is as there were many manufactured without any marks. the rest of the missing parts are easy to make. If you put your location in your profile, you might be surprised how many members are near enough to visit and some members have all kinds of parts that could be used or make for you.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[George N. M.]

Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming.  Glad to have you.

The way I recall "vice" versus "vise" is that the VICE President works at the Capitol (emphasis on the Cs) and a "vise" is made out of Steel (emphasis on the Ss).  It is a common transposition and all of us have done it.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[JHCC]

This is complicated by the fact that "vise" and "vice" are both acceptable alternative spellings for the word that describes the tool in your original post; "vise" being more common in American English and "vice" being more common in Commonwealth* English.

"Vice" as the opposite of "virtue" comes from the Latin vitium, which means "fault".

"Vise" (or "vice" in CE) as the tool that holds something firmly comes from the Latin vitis, which means "vine".

"Vise-" as a prefix for someone who acts in support of or in place of another (as in vice-president or vice-chancellor) comes from the Latin vicis, which means "alteration" or "replacement".

 

*By which I mean the British Commonwealth, of course, although your being a resident of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania might explain your preference for this spelling.

[Frosty]

Se what kind of forum you joined Catmom? 

What kind of cat(s) do you have? We have a long hair mostly Mainecooon that lives in the upstairs closet unless he wants something. My wife, Deb gentled him down as part of 3 litters in our barn. Loosely stacked hay bales are perfect places for the ferals to litter. Qiviut was the last kitten to be caught and was so skittish we couldn't re-home him so we kept him. this was 5 years ago and out vet still tells stories about what happened when they opened the carrier door. He was running laps around the top of the examination room walls at the ceiling.  It took almost a year before we could leave the kennel door open at home. We had the feral mothers spayed and released them in the barn, set out food and water so they'd stick around and be barn cats. We spayed, neutered and vaccinated the kittens with partial funding from friends of pets and the vet clinic before rehoming them. 

Anyway, that's our current cat, our others crossed the rainbow bridge a while back, One Pooka, was scared to death by the 2018 quake, he hid behind the washing machine and wouldn't come out not even for a drink of water. Cat's can't tolerate living without water very long and Pooka passed from renal failure. We let House Mouse go after 21 long glorious years. 

Cats, dogs, pygmy goats, horses, I've been privilidged to live with and have stories about all of them but I'm TRYING to exercise restraint this morning.

Frosty The Lucky.

[CatMom84]

Frosty,Thank you for all of the information and explaining what's missing... your picture is a big help (and that's a beautiful restoration job!).  Unfortunately the shop was cleaned out several years ago (when we grabbed this) and the property has since been sold, so we won't be able to see if he had any other pieces.  Aside from his woodworking, he loved tools and auctions... so it's possible the piece was purchased incomplete and meant to be a project that never happened.

Aww... I love that you're an animal lover too.  My husband and I currently have 3 cats (all your standard American shorthair types).  Two were rescues and the 3rd just showed up one day and claimed my husband as his human.  They are are our babies.  Losing them is the hard part, we've lost a couple over the years too.  It never gets any easier, but they're worth it.

George N M,Thank you for excusing my mistake and I appreciate your trick for recalling the proper spelling in the future!

JHCC, I had no idea... I honestly just wasn't thinking when I typed it up last night (tired brain).  The differences within the English language from place to place are interesting though!

Edited August 29, 2023 by Mod30
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[Frosty]

You're welcome it's my pleasure, I'm kind of a talky guy anyway.  The mounting bracket and bale tend to get lost pretty easily. Unless its mounted on a post, bench, etc. the wedges tend to work loose if they're moved around, dropped, bumped, etc. and the plate and such just fall off. That and a previous owner may have needed to mount it to a steel post and welded up a bracket. It's easy to make a perfectly functional one that clamps to the anvil leg. 

Letting pets go when it's time is the hardest part of having pets but it's part of the deal not to make them stay around longer than they should. I make it a point to make their end as good as possible. When we raised pygmy goats we kept a Great Pyrenes Mountain dog to keep bad critters and people away. Our first was Buran who rode with Deb and I when we moved her stuff up from the UP of Michigan. He rode on the front (only) seat between us in the 23' box van full of what she kept from her hobby farm. By time we got home Buran knew his people better than most any barn dog. I held his head in my lap while the vet put him down, arthritis and age had just worn him out. The last things he head were Deb and I telling him what a good dog he is and how much we love him. I sat there with him snoring in  my lap drooling slightly as the final drug took him. 

I cremated him and scattered his ashes in the Doe pen on Doe Mtn. where the girls played and slept in the sun. He was the first of three Pyrs we owned, we rehomed one when we sold the last of out goats, the two big fiber sheep went in the freezer. I held our second pyre, Libby as she crossed the rainbow bridge. We rescued Libby from a nitwit who found out a registered Pyr puppy typically brought in around $1,300 so he bought a couple to make a killing. We answered an add in the freebies to find three dogs chained to a chain link fence on a concrete within reach of each other No shade, no beds, just bleak concrete and a chain.

The ex-owner warned me she could be vicious when I approached, opened the gate and walked up to her. She was one giant wag, took one sniff and we were friends. Typical pyr,. She didn't like the owner and for good reason, We signed the contract saying we wouldn't sell her puppies and when he brought her out the gate she hit the end of the lead, almost dumping him on his face and ran to our car, sat patiently waiting for us to open the door. When we did she jumped in, curled up on the back seat and settled in. Wonderful dog. 

Deb was calling animal control as we drove out the gate to report abusive neglect. No idea what the results of that were other than two more dogs maybe saved. 

Right now we have a pair of dachshunds, Baxter the old man at 12 and Rhonda the 4 yro. Both are rock star competitive sports dogs. Baxter's starting to show his age, he's going to be a tough one to say good by to. <sigh>

Then there was Abby, Deb's service and therapy dog. We rescued her and I've got to say it's almost impossible to imagine an angel needing rescue. She was one of the best dogs I've ever known. I'll get all misty eyed if I talk too much about her. Deb and I held her as she crossed the rainbow bridge and got tears all over her.

First pic is Abby, the second is her making me feel better in the hospital, the next is Falki an Icelandic Sheep Dog. Then comes Baxter mugging for the camera and the last is Buran in heaven taking care of his babies. I just realized I don't have a good pic of Ronnie. <sigh>

Frosty The Lucky.

         

   

[LarryFahnoe]

Great pics and stories Jerry! The world needs more folk who love and respect the other creatures we're living amongst.

--Larry

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

10 hours ago, Frosty said:

It's easy to make a perfectly functional one that clamps to the anvil leg. 

Love the pictures of the fur kids. Here is a perfect example of making a vise mounting bracket for a vise.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Howdy from eastern Oklahoma and welcome to the forum!

I thought it’s also worth mentioning that If you want a original looking post vise mount there’s a kit available online with the parts your missing 

[NoGoodWithUsernames]

TW: Do you know who sells that? I've not seen that kit before but would be interested in that. Functionality is foremost but whenever possible I like to have things look authentic, just part of the fun for me to try and have things look the part of ye olde timey blacksmith. 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Stony point forge and fabrication, the vise mount is like the kind on Columbian post vises

[NoGoodWithUsernames]

Cool thank you!

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

You’re welcome!
I ordered some sleigh bell blanks from that Dude last fall, I learned about him from a black bear forge video