Restoring a 200-Year-Old Mystery Post Vise

Today in the shop I am restoring an antique blacksmith post vise. I picked it up from a small shop in Pennsylvania, and the gentleman threw in a piece of Amish buggy spring to use to remake the push spring, which was missing. Through the process I found the the word "FISCHER" stamped into the hinge bracket. This just made the mystery that much more interesting, because the "Fisher" Anvil Company doesn't use the "h" in their company name.

I took the whole vise apart and cleaned, de-rusted, and wire wheeled each piece. The screw box needed some attention because the key came off that keeps the box from spinning when you turn the vise handle. We went up to visit Randy Slaysman at Slaysman's forge and had an awesome time talking shop and hanging out while he TIG welded the two new keys that I made onto the screw box. We headed back to the shop I and modified one washer to fit with the new keys, and made another to make space for the jaws properly. Once I got it all back together, I got the forge up and running and forged out the push back spring, with "ears" to hold the bottom in place. I drilled and filed a mortise to match the through tenon mounting plate and wedged it back in place.

The spring works perfectly, all parts are cleaned and oiled, and the vise is back and ready to be put to work for another 200 years.

Big thanks to Randy Slaysman for his help with the screw box. I was definitely out of my league with that part of the restoration and he was a huge help and a wealth of knowledge when it came to the wrought iron and how this vise would have been made. Go check out his Instagram page @slaysmanforge, and give him some love and encourage him to put some more videos up on his YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/user/slaysmanforgecom/featured

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Видео Restoring a 200-Year-Old Mystery Post Vise канала The Art of Craftsmanship