Unknown vintage vise

[garymtx]

Does anyone recognize this vise? It's coming up at a (semi) local auction. Never seen one like it. It's advertised as having 4" jaws and looks old and very well built. This is the only close up picture they provided. Looks like the vise body swivels 360 degrees and tilts 90 degrees. I can't make out the lettering on the mount.

 

[zkling]

Western champion

 

[davethorik]

And an ad...very cool vise. Don't see them very often.

 

[Roberts210]

Garymtx, please let us know if you get this beautiful vise, and of course if you do, post some more pictures.

 

[SweetD]

Looks like handle is bent. Make sure you take a good look at it for damage. Very cool vise though.

 

[Cleave]

Looks like the fixed jaw has a pivot so you can clamp tapered parts. I think there's some Reeds like that??????
Then the swivel mount off the table is probably a separate add on part.

 

[Shiftless]

Buy it!
The back jaw swivels to hold tapered objects. Reed, Prentiss, and several other manufacturers offered vises with that feature.
If the bent handle is the only damage, don’t let that stop you. That is a super rare collectible vise. A 100 year old survivor.

 

[Sdemeter]

Nice!

 

[garymtx]

I'll definitely be a serious bidder on this. It will be a VERY nice addition!

 

[Shiftless]

Wishing you good luck with that auction

 

[garymtx]

Thanks everyone! This is why I love this site!!! The knowledge base is amazing. I'll be a serious bidder on this vise and a few others in the same auction.

 

[Shiftless]

You might want to edit you last post to omit details about the auction. There are people who haunt the pages of GJ to learn of good deals you and I uncover and intend to patronize. You don’t want extra competition in the bidding do you?

 

[thehorse13]

A family member down in Texas told me about this auction. Fortunately for the OP, I'm at vise capacity right now.

Keep us updated. We love a good tool acquisition success story.

 

[Shiftless]

A family member down in Texas told me about this auction. Fortunately for the OP, I'm at vise capacity right now.

Keep us updated. We love a good tool acquisition success story.

Ha ha
“Vise capacity”
I’ll venture a guess that many fellows over on the main vise thread who have 10, 20, 50, 100 or more would gladly sell a few of theirs to make room for that Western Champion if space was the only reason they weren’t bidding

 

[Provincial]

Since when was space a consideration?

 

[garymtx]

You might want to edit you last post to omit details about the auction. There are people who haunt the pages of GJ to learn of good deals you and I uncover and intend to patronize. You don’t want extra competition in the bidding do you?

Shiftless, Yeah, I thought about that. I figured the local buyers would know about it anyway and if out of state buyers want it bad enough to ship it, they want it more than I do and have mighty deep pockets.

 

[thehorse13]

Ha ha
“Vise capacity”
I’ll venture a guess that many fellows over on the main vise thread who have 10, 20, 50, 100 or more would gladly sell a few of theirs to make room for that Western Champion if space was the only reason they weren’t bidding

There is a female that roams my home who has great influence on what capacity means. lol. I'm sure you understand.

Shiftless, Yeah, I thought about that. I figured the local buyers would know about it anyway and if out of state buyers want it bad enough to ship it, they want it more than I do and have mighty deep pockets.

You have no idea how correct you are. I've faced off against massively deep coastal pockets and can count on one hand how many times I came out the winner.

 

[Zrxrunner]

This whole covid deal has the online auction market absolutely BOOMING!! not to mention blacksmith and metalworking tools. I just had to pay $50 for a beat up and weld spattered old rock island. Hopefully you can pick that one up reasonably n give er a good home!!

 

[drivesitfar]

Gary: i'm as much interested in the how that vise is mounted to the bench as I am in the vise so did you buy it or is auction still going on?

anybody else seen a vise mounted like that. OMG i've read most every page of the big vise thread and a ton of other threads here and haven't ever seen a mounting like that before on a bench. before I enlarged it as big as possible i thought maybe that was weld on the mounting piece and another bonus is that it's lettering in the cast.

I for one would at least like more pics if possible.

thanks

 

[Roberts210]

Did the OP win the auction?

 

[drivesitfar]

I'm hoping he did so we can get more pics.

Roberts: have you ever seen a vise mounted like that ever?

 

[garymtx]

Well folks, the auction was a bust. The vise above disappeared before the auction even started. They had dozens of other desirable big vises, Reeds, Wiltons, Columbian, Simplex etc. Most were 5 or 6 inch, a few 4 inch and a couple of 8 inch. And hundreds of Lyons/Stronghold shop cabinets. And that doesn't include the thousands of other industrial items. I think the auction was actually too big (four days worth), it drew lots of commercial buyers from all over the country. The vises were going for $400 to $1,000 each, everything in general was selling for too much money. That disappearing vise had me turned off from the get go anyway.