BShamrock: we have been trying to figure out the maker for the 519x's series Craftsman vises for at least a couple years now. while Mark's choice of Reed might be the one there are other makers in the mix.
Rock Island dates their vises like the 519x's on the top of the slides and their vises look pretty close.
Starrett vise company makes the handle ends similar and also the way the vise nut is a little nicer than most vises and even better than a Reed.
Columbian made other vises for Craftsman during those years the 519x's were made so that has been mentioned too.
I have a 80 year old machinist telling me that Starrett made them, but i'm leaning towards Rock Island since Rock Island was going out of business and might have needed the work from Sears to keep things running. Rock Island also made vises for Craftsman pre WWII like the 5162 & 5163 here that i'm posting. i'm also posting my 5196 and 5197 because can we really have too many pictures of vises?
so what do you think? BTW nice looking 5197 you own
cheers
