Not a farriers vice

[Screwdriver]

That's what it is, I think.

Let's have a look...

Dunno. Happy to be put right if there's a difference but for me it's a bench mounting blacksmithing vice (as used by farriers?).

Anyhow, whatever it is ,it's going to get tarted up (not the full @spencer 427 ), cleaned and refurbished. First obvious problem is a worn thread. Not much to be done about that and in practice, really shouldn't be an issue.

It is slightly banana'd.

...and that is something I probably will address. It might come out cold with a few judicious strikes with a big sledgehammer but I will more than likely get it good and hot just in case.

The big post leg vice I have in there is amazingly useful but sits quite high and there is little choice where it can go. Only a couple of spots in my tiny forge area can accommodate it plus it is quite high.

 

[Seadog]

I saw that for sale. Was it on FB? It looks like a much modified Peter Wright.

 

[Screwdriver]

I saw that for sale. Was it on FB? It looks like a much modified Peter Wright.

eBay, offered as collection only but he did post it...

To be fair, all blacksmith vices look like Peter Wright's, this one has no markings I can see (yet). I think it is bog stock except perhaps for those bolts. I may dig arund for some info on this style and maybe knock up a few square headed replacements if as I suspect, that's what they came with.

 

[Shox Dr]

That's what it is, I think.

Let's have a look...

.

Thought someone had sent you a horses head

 

[James1979]

Saw this and thought you’d scored a treadle vice! Really hard to get as most are made not bought.

I’ve got one on the roundtoit list.....

 

[Brad93]

No use to a farrier. A farriers vice looks like this.

 

[BarrieJ]

Pretty sure that's just a bench vice of the sort that might well have complimented the traditional leg or post vice in a blacksmith's shop. I always thought that vices particular to the needs of farriers followed the 'gooseneck style'. I can't currently find an illustration of a vintage example but something more recent as below. They are available commercially (expensive) but many farriers did in the past fabricate their own.

I think the confusion in naming comes about because traditionally blacksmiths were almost always shoeing smiths (farriers, the word coming from Middle French ferrier - blacksmith) as well and people saw leg vices and the like in forges and presumed they were particular to shoeing. At one time the British Army differentiated the three separate trades: blacksmith, shoeing smith and farrier and I think farriers still parade with the Household Cavalry at the Changing of the Guard, carrying their traditional spiked pole axe, presumably used for killing injured horses on the battlefield.

A leg vice is intended for heavy work, the leg being embedded in the floor allows the force of a hammer blow to feed into it. A big leg vice from forged steel will take some serious abuse.
Where it's at a disadvantage is that unlike a bench vice its jaws do not meet full face over the depth of the jaws, since in closing, its front jaw describes an arc from it's pivot, often a foot below the top of the vice. Only at one point along that arc will the full face of both jaws be fully parallel to each other
]
In the past I'm sure many village blacksmiths got by with only a leg vice but the addition of a big old Fortis No 11 made my working life easier.

Below: A farrier's gooseneck vice.

 

[Screwdriver]

"No use" is a bit harsh but I take your point. Never seen a dedicated farriers vice before though I have seen attachments that convert post leg vices into that type of grip (I even have one somewhere).

Super simple disassembly and no horrendous damage yet...

Dunked in paraffin.

The main screw is in better condition than I had feared.

Wire brushed to get rid of the paint. Still not found anything terrible other than a single drilled hole in the front jaw (but why )

I might still dip it in citric just to get rid of the underlying rust but it's virtually good to go. Because it will be put to work in the forge, I see no point in painting it so a quick wash down with BLO and it should be done.

 

[Screwdriver]

So it's not a "farriers vice", even so I'm not sending it back to the seller under trades descriptions. Obviously I am not a farrier, nor am I in any sense a blacksmith so it is demoted to blacksmith stump vice.

Forgot to say now that it's cleaned up, I will give the bends a quick bonk on the flypress. It will be cast and forged steel so it won't crack. Now it's cleaned up you can see the lovely forge welds. Once my fingers recover from all the wire wheel action (they are still buzzing!) I may even go out there and video it.

<edit> Thanks Mr. Mod for updating the title.

Also forgot to say I will definitely address the issues with those bolts. I think they ought to be square head plus they are all really tight, as if someone has managed to squeeze slightly too wrong a thread in there. If it's a proper vintage item, it probably came with hand made bolts!

 

[hotponyshoes]

This is a mobile farriers vice...
Self-adjusting mole grips welded to a bit of tapered steel to drop into the hole on the anvil.
300grams at a guess.
I don't need to hold the shoes rigid as I gave up hot rasping when cordless grinders came out

 

[angellonewolf]

looks nice i bet a few people that are collecters would pay a few quid for it

 

[James1979]

Google treadle vice. Really good for lots of quick clamping. Bit like that gooseneck but works on body weight. Popular with a few farriers ive seen.

 

[julianthegypsy]

Live and learn. I made thousands of shoes, many years ago, and I've never seen a farriers vice. We used a leg vice, which looks very similar to taht one, minus the leg!

 

[Screwdriver]

Well I couldn't resist so last night I dunked the lot in a bucket of citric.

I'll pull it out later this morning...

 

[Screwdriver]

This is a very typical issue on these ancient vices. The end of the internal thread which is brazed in (!) can pull out.

Tidied up with a Dremel (not the replacement one direct from Bosch, that has also expired).

Now I have videoed this process as promised but it transpired Davinci simply will not run properly on my low spec Mac. Shame because there's some flypress action to straighten this out and I bonked the handle dead straight in one go!

I still have the footage and am going to try and see if I can cobble together a system that will edit these modern codecs at 1080P. Watch this space.

This type of blacksmithing vice does not have a spring to return the moving jaw, it is held captive to the main screw by this shaped bolt and annular recess.

Problem is, over the centuries (!) the friction washer has deformed, crushed and worn so the full force of the main thread is now bearing on the top of this retaining bolt before the jaws meet. One of the main reasons I wanted to video this, it's obvious when you see it but tricky to describe, anyhow, I made up a spacer - in the next post...

 

[Screwdriver]

So having carefully shaped the end of the bolt, it didn't work. Needs about 4mm so I chopped it out of this.

That's a tracing and not drawn with a compass. I decided to grind the outer circle on the belt sander to a decent round, then clamp it in the 3 jaw and turn the centre "bore".

I couldn't be bothered with a mandrel or sacrificial plate mounting and this was a lot easier to do, plus it's just a blacksmith vice, not even a farriers vice at that.

I couldn't resist the opportunity to push a step drill all the way through. Don't often get the chance. Tidied up later with a boring bar.

It worked even though you can't see the jaws are touching and the recess is lined up with the bolt hole, you can take my word for it.

So there is is done. Just needs a coat of BLO.

I have tidied up al the bolts which are now all the correct size etc. Plus I fitted a locknut on the retaining bolt, just because...