Vise Grip history

[Tucko]

I haven't had much luck with Google. Are there any good websites on dating a pair of vise grips. I've got a few pair that are older, and I'm trying to date them. When did they add the quick release on the grip?

 

[PFSard]

I can't answer your question on dating specific Vise Grips, but I had found this site through a thread in GJ.

Vise Grip
http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s/machines_12.html

 

[Mark in Indiana]

PFS,
Thanks for posting the link. Very interesting read.

 

[Tucko]

I can't answer your question on dating specific Vise Grips, but I had found this site through a thread in GJ.

Vise Grip
http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s/machines_12.html

Thanks, now I know my grips are pre 1957.

 

[drivesitfar]

ALL: I heard from a 90+ year old that the old vise grips he sold me he bought after WWII and he thought it was 1946 when he bought his house. if I remember correctly they don't have a spring like the newer ones do. i'm going from memory here so i'll pull out a few and post some pictures when I can. Also thinking they were Peterson brand.

 

[lbgradwell]

Vintage Vise-Grip Ads!

 

[LB-1911]

I haven't had much luck with Google. Are there any good websites on dating a pair of vise grips. I've got a few pair that are older, and I'm trying to date them. When did they add the quick release on the grip?

Thanks, now I know my grips are pre 1957.

Give this a look -
Back to the Future: Lever-less ViseGrips From 1942
http://toolmonger.com/2011/08/04/back-to-the-future-lever-less-visegrips-from-1942/


Time to head over to
Let's see your genuine Petersen Vise Grips
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=238950

and post'em up.

 

[Richard Cranium]

I do remember a post on GJ that spoke of the changes and listed dates.

 

[lbgradwell]

Thanks, now I know my grips are pre 1957.

The pair on the left are somewhere from ~1947-57, and the pair on the right from ~1942-47.

 

[BFBOB]

Am I sitting on a gold mine, or is it just fool's gold?
I was getting ready to toss this pair of clearly knockoff, mistreated, beat up locking pliers in the scrap steel bin, when the stampings on the locking handle caught my eye. The patent is the original 1924 Peterson patent and the DeWitt mark WITHOUT the grasping hands logo means it's early - but how early?
The website cited above is very interesting, but doesn't answer the question of the date of my 7" Vise-Grips.
Another reference pointed to some dreamer who was trying to get $450 on fleaBay for Vise-Grips that sounded like mine! Sadly that was 3 years ago and the pictures were gone; only the description remained.
All I've found out for pretty-sure so far is they are between 1924 and 1957, when the "Easy-Release" lever was added. Note the odd shape of the locking handle- with a sharp bend where the adjusting lever joins it. Also something I haven't seen before. And another hint, the hex head on the adjusting screw. All the others I've seen are knurled.
Any help much appreciated!!

 

[Oldtuleguy]

There was a 1942 patent, so you are probably earlier than that. I also saw one like yours that was pat pending. Maybe do a sold listing search on ebay for some examples.

 

[woody 73]

Some more information in case you need it:

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=397715

 

[SilverDeck]

You've got any early pair here. Pinpointing the exact date of manufacture is challenging. Following the patent for the 1924 "second model" type of Vise Grips, Petersen went through a whole series of iterations and refinements to the tool. They went away from drop forgings for the body of the tool and went to a "bent metal" style of body. The lower jaw was still forged and the upper jaw teeth were forged by the rest of the body was very heavy sheet metal bent to shape by presses. What tells me yours is an early post-1924 model is that it still has the original hex-ended adjusting bolt. This was done away with probably in the late 1920s in favor or a knurled adjusting bolt. Yours also has the 1924 Vise Grip patent number on it. Once Petersen stared making the non-drop-forged Vise Grips after 1924, the earliest ones were marked "Pat. Apr. 8, 24" and later this marking was changed to the "Pat. No. 1,489,458" that yours has. A short time later Petersen applied for another patent on the tool and those are marked "Pat. No. 1,489,458 Other Pat. Pend." The "other pat. pend." tools date to the 1930s. So I would put yours post 1924 but pre mid-1930s, and definitely dates toward the earlier end of that range. My best guess right now (based on the marking and design features of your Vise Grip) is that is was likely produced in during the 1926-1929 time period.

I live less than an hour from DeWitt, Nebraska, and have spent years digging into the early history of Vise Grips. There is surprisingly little written down about the evolution and development of these tools and much of what I've heard has been gathered from observation and comparison of early Vise Grips such as yours.

Am I sitting on a gold mine, or is it just fool's gold?
I was getting ready to toss this pair of clearly knockoff, mistreated, beat up locking pliers in the scrap steel bin, when the stampings on the locking handle caught my eye. The patent is the original 1924 Peterson patent and the DeWitt mark WITHOUT the grasping hands logo means it's early - but how early?
The website cited above is very interesting, but doesn't answer the question of the date of my 7" Vise-Grips.
Another reference pointed to some dreamer who was trying to get $450 on fleaBay for Vise-Grips that sounded like mine! Sadly that was 3 years ago and the pictures were gone; only the description remained.
All I've found out for pretty-sure so far is they are between 1924 and 1957, when the "Easy-Release" lever was added. Note the odd shape of the locking handle- with a sharp bend where the adjusting lever joins it. Also something I haven't seen before. And another hint, the hex head on the adjusting screw. All the others I've seen are knurled.
Any help much appreciated!!

 

[Milton Shaw]

When you are dating a vise grip, what kind of bar do you take them too for drinks and dancing. LOL ..

 

[ganymede]

Silverdeck,
Thanks for that info!

 

[outofbounds]

These popped up for sale in FB on the Vintage Tool page. Not in my lane generally, but very cool, and certainly very early (if not earliest)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...set=pcb.3192180090819474&type=3&theater&ifg=1