Hi everyone,

One of my long-term plans (unless I come across an absolute steal of a deal) is to forge my own leg vise. I have seen some of the other DIY leg vise threads on here and I'm inspired.

In the short term, I'm hoping to attempt a very scaled down version with a clamp assembly in place of the leg, to use as a portable filing/small assembly vise.

My question is, does anyone know, historically, how the jaw shapes were formed?

To me it looks like they could have been either:

1. upset, drawn out into a "T" and bent over, at minimum with a striker, if not using a steam hammer or similar.

2. Split at the end to make a "T" (possibly still a little bit of upsetting involved) and then bent over.

Anyone have any knowledge, evidence or advice as to how it was actually done? Or if either of the above methods won't work, or will work better?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

Jono.

Good Morning,

Contact Glenn Moon, NSW     pm me and I will give you his phone number.

Neil

Will do, Neil, but I'm also hoping to discuss these techniques here if anyone knows much about them. I figure it would be one of those topics that would be useful as a resource to all members here.

I saw this video a while back and found it very inspiring. It may give you more insight.

He also did a video presentation on forging the vise screw for blacksmiths without boarders:

Keep it fun,

David

Thanks Goods! That first video seems familiar. It may be where I got the idea of splitting and then upsetting.

The second video is invaluable! And I haven't even finished watching it yet! I recently found this square thread I had turned when I was at university (20 something years ago!! Where has the time gone?!) which is 6 or 8mm pitch, but only about 150mm of threaded section.

I could use it and weld and extension on the end, but I think I'd rather use it as a master to create a swage like he did in the video.

When I built my vise, I upset into a tee shape. then bent it to form the jaws. If I had it to do over I would not have bent it as far.  I can un bend it, but I'm lazy, and it works OK.