Another "What is it"

[steven c newman]

Was out on a cheap rust hunt today....found three Atkins saws taped together
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Price said $5? Got it for $3 for three saws..meh
However, found this little thing at another sale..
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Jaws are just under 3-3/4" wide. Has a pair of counter-sunk holes for screws. Price for this "Treasure"?
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Yep,Fifty cents. Haven't found any name on it, not much room to put a full sized saw in there.
So, what kind of Vise is it?

[Jim Ritter]

Sewing leather I think.
Jim

[Ryan Mooney]

I'm inclined to agree with the ebay sellers that its some sort of a small saw vise. Are there file marks across the top of it?

I'd be surprised if it was for leather, the mechanism would be slow and most were/are wood to avoid marking the leather (I guess if the jaws were originally fully japanned that could be possible - another thing to check).

[Phil Mueller]

I think Jim is right. Here's an image I found of a "antique cast metal flat jaw leather vise with thumbscrew"....

[Ryan Mooney]

Yeah, I saw a guy selling one as a "pipe vise" as well which made about as much sense to me.. You'll also note that the jaw layout of your "flat jaw leather vise with thumbscrew" is different - its more only edge contact and Steve's has more contact all over. I suspect the people advertising it as that have as little idea of its purpose as we all do :D

I have some difficulty reconciling it as a leather vise because of the shallow depth (similar problems to it being a saw vise), the slowness of adjusting it, and it being metal...

I'm awaiting more information on any apparent wear patterns, that might? tell the story..

[steven c newman]

Jaws are flat. Haven't seen any file or wear marks on them, either.
As for scale:
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Saw is a full sized Dissto-HK Porter handsaw, mid to late 1950s....."vise" is on as far as it can go..
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The entire jaw will sit flat onto the plate. That spring/bolt kind of stops things from going any deeper.

As for the three saws from today....meh...2 are of the HK Porter era Disston saws....one is, by the medallion, an Atkins saw. All three look about the same size.

For the total cost of $3.50 ..not too bad, being out of the house by myself? Priceless.

[Ryan Mooney]

Yeah definitely not for full sized saws for sure anyway :) The lack of file marks puts the saw vise theory way further down the list unless its magically unused which seems fairly unlikely.

[Jerry Olexa]

Believe it is a saw sharpening vise....Just my thought...

[James Pallas]

Harness maker vise very likely. To hold heavy strap harness for riveting and such.
Jim

[steven c newman]

It was something a bit smaller then dragging this out all the time..
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Wentworth No.1 I had to add the 2x6. $10 at an Antique Mall last spring. Needs tuned up a bit, one side clamps better than the left side does.

Maybe I could use the newest one to hold small parts?

[James Pallas]

Steven, Cleaned out an old barn once several of similar things were around. I just looked on the bay. There were some just like yours asking price about 50 bucks. Good on ya. Look at leather working vises.
Jim