I’ve looked at hundreds of old vises. Some in person and lots more online.

I’ve noticed that of all the different brands more specimens by “The Prentiss Vise Co” of New York are broken than any other. Is it because they weren’t as good as other makes or more of them were abused? Probably neither. I bet to make a valid analysis I’d have to look at tens of thousands of every make. Lets face it,  Prentiss started making vises in the 1860′s (possibly earlier) and if they sucked at it they wouldn’t have lasted into the 1940′s like they did.

Still I was glad to find one that wasn’t broken and for five bucks I took it home.

Thats when I noticed that it was broken. One of the mounting ears had broken off. The good news at least, someone had fixed it and instead of taking the easy way out and brazing it, they actually welded it.

So I cleaned it up and put a fresh coat of paint on it.

Text cast in raised letters reads: The Prentiss Vise Co. New York. Bulldog No 50.

This is the second time I bought a busted vise. The last one I bought was by Parker and the slide support had broken off. At that time I made up my mind to pay closer attention when looking things over.  Nice job dummy.

Recently in the world of mechanics tools there has been lots of hype over fine tooth ratchets with 80+ tooth counts. This is actually nothing new. Back in the 1950′s, J.H. Williams Co-produced an extra fine tooth ratchet. It had dual opposed pawls that were not in sync with each other. As one pawl disengaged, the other would seat itself. So with a 41 tooth ratchet you’d get double the clicks.  A great idea that works for the most part, but I have several, have examined a bunch more and all of them don’t quite work as they’re supposed to for their entire range of motion.  Every so often it seems like a pawl will bypass the gear teeth when it’s supposed to set. So instead of 82 tooth action it’s more like seventy something. They can’t all be like mine, since these model ratchets were mfg’d for several decades, but it’s odd that every one I own and have looked at behaves this way regardless of condition (I have one that may have never been used). Again this doesn’t happen a lot so they still have a shorter swing than most ratchets made nowadays and they’re probably stronger too .

Here’s a March 1958 ad from Popular Mechanics (I got it and the other add using Google Books)

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Williams also made/makes adjustable wrenches.  Here’s another excellent idea with good but not perfect execution.

(Ad is from Popular Mechanics, June 1956)

The wrench can be locked in position so that as you take it on and off fasteners, the jaw wont spread open. It’s pretty simple too. The thumbwheel is held in by a special pin instead of a machine screw (as in normal adjustable wrenches). One part of the pin is smooth and the other is hexagon shaped. The inside of the thumbwheel is shaped like a 12 point socket. When you push the pin one way the hex section engages teeth inside the thumbwheel. Push it the other way and it disengages. The problem is that occasionally the nut or bolt you need to turn is such a size that adjusting the wrench for a perfect fit puts the thumbwheel in a position where the grooves inside it don’t line up with the pin and it cant be pushed in all the way. So you adjust the wrench a bit to lock the thumbwheel but the jaws no longer fit perfectly on the bolt or nut. This doesn’t happen often though and overall I think the wrenches like the above ratchets are nice.

Brown & Sharpe No 36.

This one isn’t in my 1905 catalog and the last patent date on it is Nov 6 1894 so its pretty old, possibly 19th century.

Pitting was pretty deep but the rust was easy to remove. I find that most micrometers clean up well and I’ve got a good success ratio for getting them working.  Pic below is of the barrel with spindle removed. Notice there are two slots running its length. This was so that as the micrometer wore with use you could turn the nut on the end of the barrel and  increase pressure on the spindle. Later mics had three slots. You can also see lines for the vernier scale but no numbers. I’m not sure if they wore off from being polished or if it never had them and you would count the lines to get a 10 thousandths reading. For thousandths the lines are faded but readable. I checked it with some gage blocks and it still measures accurately too.

I remember being at the flea market a few years ago and listening to a dealer and his friend talk about an old Brown & Sharpe height gage that he had for sale. They fidgeted with it for a bit, remarked about its quality, wear and changing times then they walked away. The last thing he said was  ”It worked fine for the first hundred years”.