Behold Upon My Big Rare Rusty Vise

Susan_in_SF

Susan_in_SF

Wood and Metal Goddess
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Jul 18, 2017
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407
Hi guys,
I wasn't looking to buy a blacksmith post vise at all. I mean, come on! My 1 car garage is so packed with woodworking and metalworking equipment that I started to sell some woodworking stuff and decided to focus more on metalworking due to lack of space. Why would I want to blacksmith? I am a measly renter with a small outdoor patio and 1 car garage. Yet, fate was unkind, and I encountered deals that I could not resist. First, I know that basic price range asked for for blacksmith post vises listed on craigslist. So, when I saw, off of the LetGo app, a post vise for only $40. I could not resist. The seller told me his family used this vise for over 30 years in an ironworks business they had in San Francisco. All I saw was a rusty vise that was heavy enough to give the seller a hard time as he loaded it into my little hatchback car. It did look different. It didn't have a long dainty leg like most post vises I have seen. I later measured the jaws of this old thing. When I googled blacksmith post vises, to my surprise, the largest ones online that I could find had 6 inch wide jaws, and some were on sale for over $400. My vise has 7.5 inch jaws :) !! It is missing the leaf spring and mount, but I read it was not to hard to make.
Then, I was browsing craigslist and found a guy who was deep into knife making but had to sell his anvil, tree stump, tools and 2 burner propane forge quick due to moving to a tiny apartment the next day. I wasn't looking to buy blacksmithing stuff, but could not resist buying knowing I got a super deal.
Anyways, here are pics of my blacksmith stuff, and partial pic of the forge. In all honesty, I may have to sell the forge if I get in trouble with the apartment mgmt office for using a forge in my patio (I live in a townhouse style 2 story apartment where units are all next to eachother).

If I were to sell the blacksmith vise, do you think having or not have the leaf spring and mount would affect the price buyers are willing to pay when this size is rare, and the missing parts are easy to make? If so, I guess I will get that on before placing an ad. However, it is not for sure. A part of me wants to keep this mammoth thing that I don't really need just for bragging rights (Cue in Tim Allen grunt) :) By the way, the vise is 37 inches tall.

Thanks for reading my rant :')
Susan
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Congrats on getting a SMOKIN' deal on all of these!

As for (horrors!) selling the vise, my thought is that you need to look at available time. Replacemant parts will obviously take time to make. Then their appearance won't match the rest of the vise, so you might want to spend some more time to clean it up a bit. All of the time spent will probably result in a much nicer price. So which is more valuable to you?
 
Is this a cry for help ? I feel your pain , really . I to have a weakness for stuff , plus our commendations are modest at best . However we are retired and a huge machine shop is not needed any more , I'm having fun (sorta kind of ) thinking small . My new "machine shop is 8'x7' and I have no yard and our patio is strictly a patio . Sometimes less is more
 
Great deals , if the jaws are good and not beat I'd keep it . You will be sorry someday ,,,words my father told me when I sold an 8" bullet vise... and I have been ever since. Fix it for yourself try using it if YA really don't like it , then sell . Your furnace is small it may not bother the neighbors if you don't use it often and be safe. Super anvil set up , don't sell that cheap.
 
And I'm a lecherous old prevert ...:abnornal: I would think the noise of a hammer on anvil would be more likely to arouse the ire of a neighbor than the heat of a furnace.

Looking at the photos, the vise looks to have something welded on the bottom of the vertical. Would the shaft above (2-3 inch up) match the Hardy Hole on the anvil? Just a curiousity perspective, my father dates back to 190x and while not a smith, was well aquainted with tooling of the day (pre-depression). I have never seen a vise quite like that, but the fit(?) looks like it would work. Could have been.........
Bill Hudson​
 
TV aside, there is SO much blacksmithing besides (blades making) going on in today's world that the (ART) is vastly unappreciated. The popularity on TV of the bladecraft aspect of
Bi11Hudson said:
And I'm a lecherous old prevert ...:abnornal: I would think the noise of a hammer on anvil would be more likely to arouse the ire of a neighbor than the heat of a furnace.

Looking at the photos, the vise looks to have something welded on the bottom of the vertical. Would the shaft above (2-3 inch up) match the Hardy Hole on the anvil? Just a curiousity perspective, my father dates back to 190x and while not a smith, was well aquainted with tooling of the day (pre-depression). I have never seen a vise quite like that, but the fit(?) looks like it would work. Could have been.........
Bill Hudson​
Click to expand...
A situation like that would put the vice jaws at about eye level; does that make sense?
 
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