Whit: of course there are going to be guys posting that want to use a vise as a press or anvil and agree with you. if you want to check out one of the many broken vises on one of the broken vise threads you'll see that vises break cause a lot of guys and gals were taught that you could beat on a vise like the guys do with a blacksmith vise that is meant to be beat on.
cheater bars on the handles, using as a press or an anvil is not what a bench vise was built for. it's a third hand and cause so many people grew up seeing their relatives or friends using it for other jobs they figured it was ok to.
your German made vise isn't what i'd compare to a CHINESE IMPORT that has lower quality steel in it's castings. i'm not sure where the new Besseys are made whether they are made in Germany or China now, but your Bessey looks like it might have been made in Germany which is better quality usually. the RECORD company might be located in Switzerland, but their vise factory is in China and if i recall correctly it's in a city named Sheffield so they could keep the Sheffield name on their vices that used to say Sheffield, England or the earlier ones that that said Made in England. European vices are imports, but don't compare their quality to the ones made in China.
as i mentioned to you before your vices might not break doing your press work, but when they do you'll know why they did i guess.
to show you how people think about a vise that is a tool my nephew saw a 6 inch 175 pound vise i had on the floor cause i was getting ready to ship it to a member to use in his shop and my nephew almost ran his wheelbarrow into it instead of moving a box on the other side. he said it's just a vise and he's a 25 year old contractor that's building homes now. his dad throws his tools in the back of his pick up and lets them sit outside in the rain. he's always spending his money on new tools and never has any money cause after a few months his tools are not worth anything if he wants to upgrade. yes he has skills and does nice work, but he'll never be able to borrow any of my tools.
as i said before if you want to use a vise as a press instead of buying a small press that's up to you.
EDIT: to go with your title there were several good vice companies making vices in Canada and i think there still are a couple, but not certain if Rae and a few others moved their factories.
