Sambre et Meuse 6" Bench Vise

[shammatt]

Another recent vise purchase: Just purchased this Sambre et Meuse 6" bench vise. Handles are a bit beat up, and there's been some beating on both appropriate and inappropriate areas, but it's tight and accurate closing of the jaws, acme thread is straight and it just looks good next to my Chas. Parker 4" and my soon to be refreshed Wilton Cadet.

It appears to be the same as at least one other Sambre et Meuse 6" vise discussed in another post, but the only casting/stampings I found were the name and the B Out-Acier cast on the inside of the movable jaw rail. There is also a stamped serial(?) number on the outside front of the jaw rail. There's also what appears to be a small "6" cast into both major castings.

Anyone know if the earlier mentioned Hammered Silver is the most typical color and finish for the vise when new? If the low (194) stamped number is the serial number, then it appears that this may be an early vise. Comments welcome!

Steve

 

[neophyte]

Really nice vise. Don't know if you tried this yet, but if you type "Sambre et meuse etau" into Google( etau is french for vise) and look at the images most of the vises of that style that come up have hammer finnish paint that either silver, blue, or a copper or antiqued silver. I believe monte may have mentioned that Dolex, http://www.dolex-vices.com/ bought out the Sambre et Meuse vise manufacturing. Their top bench viseshave a silver finishlike this, http://www.dolex-vices.com/bench-vices/adjustable-bench-vices/type-50/ or a bluish finish like this, http://www.dolex-vices.com/bench-vices/adjustable-bench-vices/type-80-with-pipe-jaws/ . Also, if the vise weighs about 43Lbs. the "serial number" you mentioned may be a weight indication. You'd have to weigh your vise, but 194 could be 19.4 indicating 19.4 Kg.( ie. 42.8 Lbs.) I'm just going by the specs on the newer Dolex vises but the heavy duty 150mm jaw width 57 and 57T ("T" indicating swivel base) vises are listed as weighing 20Kg. and 21.5Kg. respectively.

 

[shammatt]

Actually from what little I've found, Sambre et Meuse Industries was a Belgium company, but I may have misunderstood or am talking about a different time period. I also found the following (looks like a french-speaking version of The Garage Journal, at least as it pertains to Vises).
http://www.usinages.com/autres/choix-etaux-etabli-sambre-meuse-dolex-t11556.html
Looks like I'll need to figure out how to translate it.

Also, I am intrigued with your comments about the weight but then thought, why would they stamp the weight instead of cast-in the weight? I'm still leaning toward the serial number version. Any other Sambre-Meuse owners have a stamped serial number?
Thanks.
Steve

 

[neophyte]

As far as Sambre et Meuse industries being Belgian it is. I mentioned checking "etau" because most of the images of seen have come from french websites. The Charleroi location for SMI sa. is also in the French speaking, Walloon section of Belgium. A post,http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1423804&postcount=143 , in the "Everything you need to know about bench vises..." thread, http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62716&page=8 , seems to indicate a connection to Dolex of France. On one of the images of a Sambre et Meuse vise on this page, http://www.usinages.com/blabla/etaux-t19247-15.html the vise says "Fabrique en France". As far as translating the web pages, Google has a tool bar you can use to translate, alternately you can go to Google Translate, set the first box to French, the second to English, like this, http://translate.google.com/#fr/en/ and cut and paste text into it to get a rough translation. If you don't get any more hits on the this thread you started, you might want to try asking on the "Tools from the old world" thread, Monte the moderator, and some of the members who follow that thread are from various parts of Europe and might be able to supply more info to you.

 

[wout]

Old topic but maybe interesting. I think it's not B 'out' acier but B 'tout' acier what means all cast iron. Sambre et Meuse are 2 main rivers in Belgium. The Sambre flows out in the Meuse in Namur.

Wout