Ode to an old vise

[joosttx]

My neighbor who is a recent widow knocked on my door that afternoon. I have been helping her out, moving stuff and visiting with her. Anyway, she asked me to move a table which my son and I did. Then she asked me if I would like to have her late husbands vise which was mounted to his workbench in their garage. Her husband died this year at 93. He escaped Germany at the end of WW2 as the iron curtian was falling. Made it to the US where he became a nuclear engineer. Obvisously, the man was a tinkerer. There is a nail in the base to prevent from swivelling around that he put in it. You can see it in the second picture. I pointed this out to her. And she just said, "thats my Herb."

I am really touched to have his vise and plan to keep it til I die. There is something really special about old tools passed along. You can tell which side faced the gararge door all those years.

[GeneK]

Nice story.
Speaking of things bolted to work benches-I have my great-grandfather’s hand-cranked grinding wheel/sharpener. He was born in 1876 so I guess he’d be 142 this year (he did live to 99 1/2).

[hampco]

I have a coffee table made from a church pew from about 1866, according to family lore. It still works.

Great vice tale, too.

[jclay]

There is something really special about old tools passed along.

Indeed there is.

[Doug Fattic]

IMG_1105.jpg
I am the caretaker of this vise that was previously owned by Johnny Berry from Manchester England. He was in my opinion the finest English builder. Of course there is no “best” as it is nearly impossible to define and then judge what that is. However when I see examples of his work I am always very impressed. It is an honor to have had it passed down to me.

I got it in 1975 and it must have been Johnny’s long before WWII so we have each had it for over 40 years. I wouldn’t be surprised it wasn’t new when he got it either. It is my primary shop vise where I do most of my work and has been involved with not only the hundreds of frames I’ve made but also hundreds that my framebuilding class students have built too. It will be still working strong years after I’m all worn out.

It isn’t the best vise in my shop. That was a new Record vise #25 my parents bought for me in 1976 in England. It’s awesome. We took it apart and each of us put some part of it in our suitcase in order to get it back to the States. It has emotion connected to it too since it was a gift that showed my parent’s support for my framebuilding ambitions and an example of their help in all my life’s efforts.

In the vise is a frame I made in 1977 for my father-in-law. I redid it so it could have a new life again. It too is a symbol of something that works outlasting its owner and being passed along to the next one.

[bironi]

IMG_1105.jpg
I am the caretaker of this vise that was previously owned by Johnny Berry from Manchester England. He was in my opinion the finest English builder. Of course there is no “best” as it is nearly impossible to define and then judge what that is. However when I see examples of his work I am always very impressed. It is an honor to have had it passed down to me.

I got it in 1975 and it must have been Johnny’s long before WWII so we have each had it for over 40 years. I wouldn’t be surprised it wasn’t new when he got it either. It is my primary shop vise where I do most of my work and has been involved with not only the hundreds of frames I’ve made but also hundreds that my framebuilding class students have built too. It will be still working strong years after I’m all worn out.

It isn’t the best vise in my shop. That was a new Record vise #25 my parents bought for me in 1976 in England. It’s awesome. We took it apart and each of us put some part of it in our suitcase in order to get it back to the States. It has emotion connected to it too since it was a gift that showed my parent’s support for my framebuilding ambitions and an example of their help in all my life’s efforts.

In the vise is a frame I made in 1977 for my father-in-law. I redid it so it could have a new life again. It too is a symbol of something that works outlasting its owner and being passed along to the next one.

Thank you for the great story.
Byron

[ABiCi]

IMG_1105.jpg
I am the caretaker of this vise that was previously owned by Johnny Berry from Manchester England. He was in my opinion the finest English builder. Of course there is no “best” as it is nearly impossible to define and then judge what that is. However when I see examples of his work I am always very impressed. It is an honor to have had it passed down to me.

I got it in 1975 and it must have been Johnny’s long before WWII so we have each had it for over 40 years. I wouldn’t be surprised it wasn’t new when he got it either. It is my primary shop vise where I do most of my work and has been involved with not only the hundreds of frames I’ve made but also hundreds that my framebuilding class students have built too. It will be still working strong years after I’m all worn out.

It isn’t the best vise in my shop. That was a new Record vise #25 my parents bought for me in 1976 in England. It’s awesome. We took it apart and each of us put some part of it in our suitcase in order to get it back to the States. It has emotion connected to it too since it was a gift that showed my parent’s support for my framebuilding ambitions and an example of their help in all my life’s efforts.

In the vise is a frame I made in 1977 for my father-in-law. I redid it so it could have a new life again. It too is a symbol of something that works outlasting its owner and being passed along to the next one.

Happy to have had the chance to work in this vise!

[Too Tall]

Digging this thread.
Good story Doug and I really like the fender rack.

[joosttx]

great stories Doug. Thank you for sharing. I would love to read some more "Odes to old vises".

[Bob Ross]

My grandfather had a very similar looking vice bolted to the workbench in his garage when I was growing up. At some point when I was still in my formative years (age 10-17, but probably the earlier end of that spectrum) he bequeathed it to my father, so it then spent several years bolted to the workbench in our garage. Presumably Dad still has it, although I don't believe he has a workbench in his current garage.

Me, I've lived in apartments in a city for my entire adult life, so I've never known the luxury of my very own garage, much less one that could have a workbench with a vice mounted on it...but I do consider that one of the bucket-list items of a Life Well-Lived: A place to build & fix stuff. And that includes a solid, no-nonsense vice. I'm kinda hoping I eventually get GrandDad's.

[jclay]

I think that most vises, indeed most tools, would have interesting backgrounds; but vises? There's something elemental about simply holding the work. If walls, and tools, could talk. At perhaps 40 years, mine isn't a particularly old vise. It's not a heavy, high quality casting from a pedigreed tool company, wasn't used in a master craftsman's shop and is on the small side of things though it's plenty large enough for framebuilding; it's a very nice size for it actually and I prefer the rectangular guide rail to the round types; my tubing blocks rest on it nicely when unclamped and in-between tasks.

It belonged to a farm boy from Austell, Georgia who, not many days after December 7, 1941 figured that flying airplanes sounded preferable to the infantry. With that single, well, only a notion really, my father took the on-ramp that would frame the rest of his life and make mine possible. That's SOP of course; the fundamental arc of everybody's life boils down to a particular decision or two, often random and hopefully fortuitous ones. But this was his.

My father, like so many others of his generation and station in life, was someone who mended things when they broke. He didn't build things for fun or recreation. He built and repaired things because it was necessary to living. I think that's why I feel more kinship, and a sober respect really, for the unnamed, forever unknown, garden variety craftspeople over the ages, than I do the "masters". Whatever needed doing, they did. Often not the prettiest work but sometimes quite remarkable and ever adequate to the task. And when not? Fall down six times. Get up seven.

My father in the unpleasant era of his vocation.

33094367428_cfc4f00fc4_k.jpg

My father's vise.

33094374368_b08812a737_k.jpg

[xjoex]

This was my grandfather's vise. Since it is a little portable vise I played with it like a toy as a kid. But it is still in use in my garage today.



And this is the one I bought myself when I bought my first house.


-Joe

[Paul Jacobs]

It isn’t the best vise in my shop. That was a new Record vise #25 my parents bought for me in 1976 in England. It’s awesome. We took it apart and each of us put some part of it in our suitcase in order to get it back to the States. It has emotion connected to it too since it was a gift that showed my parent’s support for my framebuilding ambitions and an example of their help in all my life’s efforts.

Great story! Mine is almost the opposite. I bought this Record No 23 brand new as a birthday present for my father in 1974. I was a student at the time so it was a major purchase for me. I remember carrying it home by train in my back pack with some difficulty. I imagine that it must have been in my mind that this investment could come back to me one day and 6 years ago my Dad told me to have it. He is still alive aged 98 but no longer is able to use his workshop and tools alas. I hope it will go on to my son in due course.

[SteveP]

I remember a vise that was in the basement of a bike shop in souhern VT.
It was made 100+ years ago in Turners Falls, Mass and was a thing of beauty.
I wish I had a picture. I told him to call me if he ever wanted to sell it even though I really have no use for a vise that big.
you wind it down and it was smooth as silk... How things were once made ( here ).
It was a machinists vise with 6" jaws... pretty much too big for bike shop use.

The history of the tool struck me.
Made when premium tools were made in USA and still beyond perfect condition.
A history lesson there.

[claritycycler]

Another old Columbian, Model 60(4.5"jaws, opens 8"). I've cleaned up and painted quite a few old vises, took a different path on this one, decided to save/display the patina acquired over 70yrs+-, instead of paint I put on two coats of Johnson paste wax, buffed each coat with an 8" cloth wheel. I got this at a garage sale, $40, its going to my son as a present this xmas.

before





cleaned, greased and waxed

[ides1056]

I think that most vises, indeed most tools, would have interesting backgrounds; but vises? There's something elemental about simply holding the work. If walls, and tools, could talk. At perhaps 40 years, mine isn't a particularly old vise. It's not a heavy, high quality casting from a pedigreed tool company, wasn't used in a master craftsman's shop and is on the small side of things though it's plenty large enough for framebuilding; it's a very nice size for it actually and I prefer the rectangular guide rail to the round types; my tubing blocks rest on it nicely when unclamped and in-between tasks.

It belonged to a farm boy from Austell, Georgia who, not many days after December 7, 1941 figured that flying airplanes sounded preferable to the infantry. With that single, well, only a notion really, my father took the on-ramp that would frame the rest of his life and make mine possible. That's SOP of course; the fundamental arc of everybody's life boils down to a particular decision or two, often random and hopefully fortuitous ones. But this was his.

My father, like so many others of his generation and station in life, was someone who mended things when they broke. He didn't build things for fun or recreation. He built and repaired things because it was necessary to living. I think that's why I feel more kinship, and a sober respect really, for the unnamed, forever unknown, garden variety craftspeople over the ages, than I do the "masters". Whatever needed doing, they did. Often not the prettiest work but sometimes quite remarkable and ever adequate to the task. And when not? Fall down six times. Get up seven.

My father in the unpleasant era of his vocation.

33094367428_cfc4f00fc4_k.jpg

My father's vise.

33094374368_b08812a737_k.jpg

I got serious goosebumps reading this. He flew a Corsair.

[jclay]

I got serious goosebumps reading this. He flew a Corsair.

Move star, too (not really)! He was one of the pilots in a John Wayne film; couldn't remember if it was Sands of Iwo Jima or Flying Leathernecks but one of'em.

I'll never forget when he said "we all tried to look like John Wayne"; I replied "I think you got that backwards".

[Jimbolina]

Bravo, John.

[rwsaunders]

I picked up a new toy this weekend from a gentleman who bought this new in the early 50’s...recently did a little touch-up too. Cool video of the foundry workers and machinists manufacturing the vises from back then as well.

[jclay]

I picked up a new toy this weekend from a gentleman who bought this new in the early 50’s...recently did a little touch-up too. Cool video of the foundry workers and machinists manufacturing the vises from back then as well.

That's excellent. You guys north of the Smith and Wesson Line, or in the Industrial PNW, are so lucky when it comes to used tooling. Finding a nice, older machinery and equipment from our industrial age, down here in The South, is, well, if not technically impossible, close enough to be functionally impossible.

It really grated me to have to buy a new vise recently instead of some old American or English unit with stories, experience, scars and street cred.

Enjoy your new best shop friend. Pedestal or bench mount?