good deal??

Dan Gray

Dan Gray

Joined
Jun 25, 2001
Messages
8,474
hey guys
what's a fisher post vise worth? I found one and he wants $150.00
for it rusted but fixable

also an anvil 90 pound with about 3/4" of the horn is broken off.
no name I can find, and no ring to it..on the cement floor or on wood..
one side of the top face as a bit rounded but the other side is fairly square
he wants 100.00 for it.. sure wished it was 150#+

thanks
 
what size of a post vice is it?? measure by jaw length not how wide it will open- i bought a perfect 4 in for $80 --i was given a 5 inch and bought a decent 6 in for $100. i personally wouldnt purchase a anvil with that damage and no ring bb
 
A rule of thumb at blacksmith sales and swaps is 10$ for every inch of jaw, 4 inch=40$ ect.ect .$150 is way out of line, unless your the one selling ofcourse.
 
Yeah unless they are some monstrous unique one, don't pay much for them. I bought my 4" Columbian for $35.

There was, however, a massive one on ebay that went for over $1,000 and weighed like 350lbs. It was awesome haha.

Check on ebay, there are a bunch right now.
 
Yeah, pass on that anvil for sure especially at that price. The $150.00 is pretty steep for the post vice. I bought a couple on ebay and I think I paid $45.00 for one and $60.00 for the other. Shipping will bump the price up quite a bit though. I dream of finding post vices at blacksmith meetings though at $40.00, here in the South (at least Florida) these (and other items like decent anvils) do not seem to be as common as in other parts of the country. Watch out on ebay, there are still bargains but it's frustrating and there don't seem to be as many choices as there used to be and sniping is the rule now rather than the exception. As pointed out they are often bid up wildly above what they are worth.
 
I just checked on EBAY....and there are a number of post vise for sale.

Although they do start out cheap, as the day of sale draws near the price is bid up to get near the $150.00 the guy is asking...
 
Post vises have recently gotten disgustingly expensive. $100+ isn't at all out of the ordinary anymore. I've never paid more than $45 for one, but I consider myself lucky.

As for the anvil, ring isn't everything. Take a ball bearing (I have a 1" BB I use) and drop it on the face. Note how far it bounces back up. You want as close to 100% rebound as you can get. 80% is excellent, anything less than 50% and it's a boat anchor. For the damage you describe it's overpriced, but check the rebound and offer the guy $50 if it rebounds well, the face is useable, and you need the anvil. Sometimes money talks.

Just my $.02

-d
 
I've got 3 post vises. my 4" one i paid 50 bucks for, however it's such an antique I dont really plan on using it, as it's from the 1790-1810 era. My 5" Iron city post vise i paid 70 bucks for, with it missing the spring, and my very nice 5.5 inch 120lb peter wright post vise with everything in perfect condition i paid a hefty 200 for, but I think it was worth every penny.

Unless the vise is in excelent condition and with large jaws, i would pass on that as well.
 
http://www.tharkis.com/images/vise1-1.jpg the Wright vise

http://www.tharkis.com/images/vise2-1.jpg The really old one (note mounting hardware has snapped off, as visible in http://www.tharkis.com/images/vise2-2.jpg and http://www.tharkis.com/images/vise2-3.jpg They stopped making postvises with mounts going through the leg like this around 1820 due to the problem of the stress placed on the mount causing it to snap [note the nice wrought iron grain pattern visible in the break] )

and the iron city http://www.tharkis.com/images/vise.jpg though this one isnt mounted very well, the bench i mounted it too was too low to use the mounting hardware, The lack of a spring on this one is only a minor anoyance, and i'll probably forge one out sometime when I think of it.

Top dollar should only be spent on a vise if it has a good spring, good jaws that line up straight, a sturdy leg which is also straight, a good condition thread with nice edges, all the mounting hardware, etc.
 
deker said:
Take a ball bearing and drop it on the face. Note how far it bounces back up.
Click to expand...

QUESTIONS:.....I have a Ball bearing and could drop it on mine,,,But what is it that this shows?

And, if the bounce is low, what does this mean?

and, even if it does not bounce back very high, what can be done to correct this?
 
An anvil is not just a piece of metal to hit stuff against. It is a tool, a very specialized tool. The purpose of an anvil is to rebound the force of a hammer's blow into the piece being worked on, allowing the expenditure of much less effort to get the same amount of work.

The ball bearing test is a good way to aproximate how well that anvil reflects the force of your hammer blow, and how hard the face is. That being said there are cases in which you can have a not so good anvil that does have good rebound. This can be particularly the case when you've got a small anvil. The reality is, you should have an anvil that weighs about 50lbs for every 1lb of the hammer you will be using on it, so that not only do you get good rebound from the anvil itself, but the anvil has enough inertial mass to not hop about from translational force.

My 125lb peter wright anvil is a little light for the 3lb hammer I do a lot of my work with, it tends to hop and skip around a bit when I'm drawing out a bar or the like.

If an anvil has poor rebound but is made of good solid steel, it IS possible to re-harden the face, however it's expensive and time consuming. The best bet is to invest in a good anvil from the getgo and avoid 'repair work'
 
thanks Guys
that all helps a lot :thumbup:
I ofered him 50.00 for the anvil when I saw it but he wasn't happy with that and asked $100.00 so I told him I'd check out the worth and get back to him..

I had no Idea about the post vise.. thanks:thumbup:
 
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