Vices from a Skip

[Wallace]

Roundel blue, for me.

Also, I believe, the head of the screw, where the tommy bar slides, should be bare metal

Your post pulled up a memory from the past, my brother found a load of RAF roundel blue and we painted everything with the stuff. We never did find a suitable thinners for cleaning the brushes out or for spraying so we kept painting things until the tin ran out!

 

[Dr.Al]

I'm slightly surprised by that as there was already signs paint on both of them (that I removed). Of course it might not be original. Not really that bothered either way though to be honest (at the risk of being pilloried on this forum): if I was trying to restore them completely true-to-original I wouldn't be re-tapping all the threads metric to bring them out of the 19th century. I'm restoring them to be good useful tools that last a long time, not to be exactly as intended by the maker.

Also, if I was going for original condition, the big vice would have to be painted black (as that's the colour of the bits of paint still left on it).