Replies

1. 
   Troy | Jan 21, 2007 06:35am | #1

   Have not a clue but I love to speculate and say that it is a saw vise for sharpening hand saws.

   Troy

1. 
   oldusty | Jan 21, 2007 06:41am | #2

   Hi Troy ,         Yeah , maybe . There is a dovetail like keyway in each half but it is stopped and does not go thru the other side .Maybe they clamped it in a vise ?

                          dusty

2. 
   | Jan 21, 2007 06:41am | #3

   I agree with you Troy.

    

   Bob Salamy, Tupper Lake, NY

1. 
   Joe Sullivan | Jan 21, 2007 06:56am | #5

   I believe it is the jaw to a leather stitching pony.  That is a device that holds pieves of leather tightly together while you hand sticth it.  It is usually attached to a riser that comes off a seat.

1. 
   groucho | Jan 25, 2007 05:13pm | #23

   You are Correct !

2. 
   Troy | Jan 21, 2007 09:40am | #6

   Glad to hear we are all so smart:) After thinking about it I wonder if I have seen something like this in one of the wood working mags.Troy

3. 
   PADDYDAHAT | Jan 21, 2007 06:56am | #4

   Troy, you are dead on. I made one of those 40+ years ago from a plan that looked much like that. We didn't have the bucks to buy the "new" fancy carbide blades then so we resharpened the steel blades . Paddy

   ps. but that's a REALLY old one. pfh

2. 
   xmike | Jan 21, 2007 03:47pm | #7

   It looks just like a harness makers stitching pony. 

   When I did leather work, I had one just like the one in the picture except that at the bottom there was a cross brace to put under my legs to hold the piece firm in my lap while I stitched it.

   Mike D

1. 
   highfigh | Jan 21, 2007 09:21pm | #8

   Could be from a stitching pony but it also looks like the clamp for a carving horse (not the kind that holds the piece when you sit down). The dovetails are used to mount it to the extension of the seat.
   "I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."

   Edited 1/21/2007 1:22 pm by highfigh

1. 
   oldusty | Jan 21, 2007 10:31pm | #9

   Hiya highfigh ,

              Yeah , on the dovetail for the mounting , that makes sense . Several  of the other posters spoke of the clamp attaching to the seat system somehow .

             There is a small butt hinge on the end , maybe it hinged out of the way ?

                   thanks  for  post                   dusty

            

1. 
   highfigh | Jan 21, 2007 11:18pm | #10

   My guess is that the hinge was added after the original bench fell apart and it may have been mounted on something else. Something like that could be easily adapted to stabilize the end of a board being hand planed, if it was on a mount, adjustable for height and distance from a bench vise.
   "I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."

1. 
   ptu | Jan 22, 2007 09:46am | #11

   Lacing horses generaly had a tightner that was a leather or rope string that was tied to one side, and then run through a hole bored in the other side, to a foot bar. One side was fixed, one movable, alowing grip to be quickly applied and released. This tightener looks more like a saw sharpening jig.

2. 
   joinerswork | Jan 22, 2007 05:15pm | #12

   ptu,

   If you look closely, you can see the holes thru the jaws for the rope to pass thru. I believe the hanger bolt attaching the jaws is a later replacement.  That and the absence of any file marks at the top of the jaws, makes me think it is for leatherwork, rather than saw sharpening.  Saw vises will typically have somewhat wider jaws, if for handsaws, or arced tops if for circular saws blades.  Gotta admit, the dovetail sockets are a puzzlement.

   Regards,

   Ray

3. 
   ptu | Jan 23, 2007 07:47pm | #13

   Ya you are rght, I can't figure the dovetails.

4. 
   oldusty | Jan 24, 2007 08:51am | #14

   Ray & ptu highfigh , others ,

           Here is an inside view of the dovtail and guts , hope we can get to the real use of this item .

             thank you all for playing

                           dusty

   
5. 
   joinerswork | Jan 24, 2007 04:27pm | #15

   dusty,

   Here's my theory, and I'm sticking to it:  Normally, one leg of the vise (for a stitching pony, lacing horse) has a tenon that extends thru the seat of the pony, where it is wedged underneath.  Looks like yours got broken off.  The better ones have a spring somewhere between the jaws so that they will open when the pressure exerted by the closing device is released.  I believe that yours had a rope originally, knotted outside the smaller of the pair of holes (on the moving jaw) that are above the hangerbolt.  The rope went thru the larger hole in the other (fixed) jaw, and was tightened by foot pressure on a pedal near the floor.  I'm guessing that the dovetails held a short length of thinned springy wood, like hickory or ash, that either didn't work as planned, or was broken in the accident that snapped off the wedged tenon.

   Ray

6. 
   oldusty | Jan 24, 2007 05:40pm | #16

     Thanks Ray ,

                           I'll buy that ( I guess I already did )

                 To me it looks to flimsy to hold saw blades .

                        regards            dusty

7. 
   PADDYDAHAT | Jan 25, 2007 04:18am | #21

   Ray, I would expect that you have at least one "old fella" in your neck o' the woods that probably wore out two of these. How about some research here. It couldn't cost ya more than a couple o' sips of good corn liquor. Paddy

8. 
   joinerswork | Jan 25, 2007 04:31pm | #22

   Paddy me lad,

   Heck, I have the one my grandpa used on the farm to repair harness.  It was lacking the rope when I pulled it out of dad's basement, otherwise still usable.

   Ray

   PS  tried to attach a pic, no luck

9. 
   ptu | Jan 24, 2007 07:56pm | #17

   I think the dovetail structure was part of a post/hinge setup, the hinge there being added later. Are the jaws lined with something?

3. 
   PADDYDAHAT | Jan 25, 2007 12:51am | #18

   Dusty, I here by recind my previous saw vise judgement(sorry Troy). I actually found my very old saw vise and while there is a resemblence, there is too much free space under the clamp edges for a saw. It does look like enough space to gather a fair amount of leather or canvas fabric to stitch . I does look very old and has seen serious service. Paddy

1. 
   joespehar | Jan 25, 2007 01:58am | #19

   I'm also voting for a leather holding device.

2. 
   oldusty | Jan 25, 2007 04:13am | #20

        Thank you very much to all ,

         Let's call  This case of myth busters closed , leather tool it is .

                          Who's turn next ?

                                       dusty