This post is dedicated to my new vice or vise to give it it’s American spelling. I say new but really it’s more like new to me. And here it is… ta dah!!
I’m sure some of you are thinking it’s a rusty, grease lump of metal propped up on a lump of wood but to me it’s perfection!
I’ve been looking for the perfect vice for a while now. I looked at new vices but none of them had the weight and strength I was looking for, so I went down the nearly new market. These were even worse, little blue vices that had completely rusted over and could never be brought back to life. I had my dad trawling through websites, and my husband driven mad as I rejected yet another vice. I know I sound like a right little princess but remember it’s a big angry vice I’m looking for not diamond slippers!
Well a few weeks ago my in laws mentioned there was a vice in the shed if it was any use, it had belonged to my husbands grandfather and wasn’t being used. (at this stage I’m sure you’re getting the sense that everyone knew of my search for a vice!) So last week when we went down to Kerry I saw the vice and it was perfect. It had the big wide jaws that I was looking for, it was really heavy so I could hammer away to my hearts content and know it wouldn’t slip or wobble under the pressure. It moved freely and the workings were in perfect condition. All it needed was a bit of elbow grease.
We brought it back home and now it’s in the shed waiting to be brought back to life. I went investigating the history and pedigree of my cherished vice. Thanks to my mother in laws great collection of photos I can show you it’s past life before being retired to the shed. As I said it started life in Ballylongford Co. Kerry and was used by my husbands grandfather. He died in 1986 and the vice found it’s way out to my in laws home place where it lived an exotic life in an Irish bog. It was welded to a bright yellow Lilliput turf cutting machine in case of any repairs and breakdowns (apparently there were many). I love that my vice survived over ten years attached to a turf cutting machine and came out the other end still working perfectly. It makes it’s minor blemishes and scars all the more noble! Now that you’ve heard it’s history I hope you be a bit more understanding of it appearance.
I’ll write another post when the vice is looking better but for now I’ll leave you with some more ‘before’ photos…
