Curious if smooth face jaws were a standard thing on these old vises. Anyone know?
I’m cleaning up a new to me Parker 23. It has jaws w/smooth faces. No idea if they are original or not.
Anyone know?
I believe that the top brands ( Hollands, Parker,Reed,Rock Island, etc) had drop forged smooth jaw faces from about 1940 and earlier.
IMHO I’d estimate that less than 25% of vises left the factory with smooth faced jaws. Kevin Scott is one of the best to inquire about this factoid….Maybe PM him?
He’s like that ophthalmologist that’s seen over 10,000 patients for cataract lens surgery , but for vises….he’s seen hundreds of old vises and can best answer this question.
Factory ( permanently attached) original jaws are definitely not often seen. They were for special tasks and not a lot of them survived.
Just my .35 worth from many hours of research and following along here through the years.
