All About Pocket Knives

my favorite little bench vise snapped in two this morning!

It is only about 4" long, probably a jewelers vise, I have had it for years. I bought a knife that someone had put a steel bail on and I was trying to remove the bail, it kept slipping in the vise so I tightened it a little more and then it snapped

I have a bunch of full size vises but this is the only little one I had

That is a shame. Those are hard to find. It's cast so you'll need to find someone that is good at brazing to weld it back up for you.

Thanks, I don`t know what I am going to do with it now

Wow! looking at the pictures I just posted I see there is some writing cast into the back jaw, I am going to clean this up and see what it says, never seen that before

There are bunches of small vises listed on eBay. Just search on 'jewelers vise'. In fact one is a two piece deal with a small vise and little one pound anvil. Of course it won't be the same as your old friend so maybe it is worth the effort and money to find someone who can weld cast. Shouldn't be too difficult up in your neck of the woods. Good luck, which ever avenue you decide to pursue.

Thanks Jerry

I just cleaned off the vise and it is marked " Patented June 15, 18...? H & B

Could this have been made by Humason & Beckley of pocket knife fame??

Now I am even sicker than I was earlier when I thought it was unmarked

Dimitri,
If you know a good welder, that vice can be "V'ed" and welded with nickle rods. I have a brother that welded for over 30 some years. He's certified in every kind of welding there is. I traded for an old car once and never checked to see if it had antifreeze in it or not. It didn't, it had water in it. It froze and cracked the motor block with about a 4 or 5 inch crack and didn't pushing a single freeze plug out. I thought I was going to have to change the motor out and really hated the loss of the motor because it ran great. My brother told he could weld the block up with nickle rods and guaranty me it wouldn't leak. I figured it was worth a try so I let him. It worked! I drove that car with that motor block welded for 5 or 6 years and it never leaked a drop. It was still going strong when I traded the car off. I'd give welding the vice a try before I chunked it in the garbage.

Aimus

Dimitri,
your vice could be a Humason and Beckley. Not to rub salt in the wound. I checked them out in Goins and it says they made all types of small hardware items. Too bad about the vice. Did it mount by a screw from underneath?

Aimus Moses wrote:If you know a good welder, that vice can be "V'ed" and welded with nickle rods.

It sure can We had an old McCormick tractor that the engine block froze up on and was welded with nickle rods, it ran for years before we sold it

FRJ wrote:I checked them out in Goins and it says they made all types of small hardware items. Too bad about the vice. Did it mount by a screw from underneath?

That was what I was afraid of Joe Yes, it does have a screw underneath to clamp it to the bench, which ironically had been broken a long time ago before I ever got it, it was brazed, but held up pretty good

Sorry to see that Dimitri.....

MB, it can be fixed. Brazing or Ni rod would be ok, but show a visible repair. If it was me, I would gas weld it with a cast iron rod. Probably in the gas grill, to preheat, and cool down gradually over a couple hours.

That is a bummer Dimitri.
A good vise is one of the most essential tools in a shop & it is hard to find a good one.

I walked past a good Wilton (USA made) at a flea market a couple months ago.
I went back yesterday and the old boy didn't have them, but I did find a Colombian Vise Co. of Cleveland.
It has about a 5 inch opening in the jaws. Probably made in the 1930. I gave $20 for it and came home and jerked a cheap imported vise off one of my benches and put that on in its place. As old as that is, there is a lot tighter with less slop in the jaws than in the new one I had.

I sure hope you can get it brazed or welded, it is a real loss to loose a good vise.

Thanks everyone for the advice

I just can`t bring myself to throw it in the scrap metal pile

I think I am going to find a real good welder that can repair it for me, if he doesn`t charge an arm and a leg

Like Dale said it is hard to replace a good old bench vise

That stinks Dimitri...

Specially something that you have used for years. Hope you can get it fixed up.

Glenn

I've got several hundred pounds of vintage vices piled up as well as four leg vices. I won't mention how many I've passed up because I was just too tired and too far away from the car to be bothered to carry 50lbs that far along with everything else or the wife was with me and giving me the evil eye.

WOW! what a nice surprise I got today...................

This rather large box arrived at the Post Office with my name on it and I was puzzled at what could be inside.

I proceeded to open it up and to my surprise it was a nice old #802 Prentiss bench vise!

It was given to me by Charlie Noyes aka RobesonsRme. Charlie, thank you so much! I really appreciate it

I have put it in it`s proper place on my work bench and it will be used this weekend on some small projects I have to do. What I like about it is it is a bit larger than the one I had which will come in handy for the bigger jobs and I seriously doubt this one will break! It is very well built yet small enough for what I need it for

WOw, that's super knice of Charlie!!

Much respect to you!!

That is really nice. And a really nice bench vice as well. Good for you Dimitri.
Charlie, your a good guy.

Neat old H&B vise MB, too bad about it, but it looks like you have a sweet little new one to play with. Also, its discussions such as this one, which make AAPK the best forum around. Nuff said.

Knife people. The more I'm around 'em, the more I like 'em and respect 'em. Congratulations Dimitri and kudos Charlie.

As I told Dimitri in a PM, the vise belonged to my father-in-law. He would be one-hundred-two if he were still alive. I have no idea how long he had owned it.

When I was cutting firewood for our fireplace back in the 70's I would clamp that little vise on the opened tailgate of my truck and when I needed to sharpen a chain, I just clamped that vise onto the saw's bar and sharpen each chipper. The chain would still move.

I haven't used that vise in well over twenty-five years. It's just been laying in a wooden box all these years.

When Dimitri posted about his favorite vise having broken, I knew I had the solution.

I'm glad he likes it.

I hope he repaints it, though.

Charlie Noyes

That was nice of you Charlie. Dale posted a picture of his big Prentiss vice a while back, and I wondered if it was related to the Prentiss knife company?

RobesonsRme.com wrote:I hope he repaints it, though.

I took Charlie`s advice this week, I had some time and re-painted the old vise.

Took it apart and soaked it in a chemical solution to remove all the dirt, grease and old paint, it had 3 different colors!, and I sprayed it with a machine grey hammer-tone paint.

Here are the results, it is now back on the bench and should last for the rest of my lifetime

Thanks again Charlie!

Dimitri, that looks really good.

I've got another one that belonged to Sarah's Dad, too. It's German. I cannot read the name. It was marked with a decal, but it's partially gone. Still has all its original blue paint.

It's quite small. It fits in the palm of my hand.

Charlie

COOL! A VICE BOMB! Now that's what I call an act of kindness.

That vise looks sweet!

Way to go Charlie!

Glenn