Blacksmith's Leg Vise

• Leg Vise:
  

The blacksmith's leg vise is made to be hammered on. (In contrast to a machinist's vise. The purpose for the leg is to transfer the shock of hammering down into the ground. Generally the jaws on a blacksmith's vise are not serrated or only lightly serrated so that they will not mar the hot metal held in the vise.

Vises with 3" to 4" wide jaws are relatively common. Back in the day, every farm had that size of vise. The larger vises with 5" and wider jaws are much less common and harder to find, and consequently much more expensive. These larger vises were used in blacksmith shops, railroad shops, factories, etc.

Warning: The jaws of a blacksmith's vise can become very hot. For example when the vise has been holding large pieces of orange hot steel, when punching in the features in a dragon head, the vise will easily get hot enough to cause water droplets to sizzle.

-- AlbinDrzewianowski - 10 Feb 2008