Wrought iron

[Screwdriver]

I very much doubt your vice is wrought iron. Wrought iron is VERY brittle across the grain unlike cast which is brittle in all directions. As for welding I have the larger version of your vice a 9 inch and that sucker has taken dogs abuse over very many years. I can assure you it will weld up perfect without any need to pre heat. My vice had many many welds on it (test welds and over runs by my father and brackets bolts lugs welded on ) by him. These welds are most certainly penetrated as I can testify as I have spent quite some time with a grinder removing these abominations.

Laurence

Good info thanks. All I know is what I have been able to find on sites like this: http://www.anvilfire.com/FAQs/blacksmith-vise.php which tell me it is definitely forged (not cast) from non-ductile iron. I think wrought iron can also be non-ductile so that doesn't rule it out. Also steel is a relatively modern invention on an industrial scale (circa. 1900 Google assures me) and these vices have been around since the 1700's. This particular one might be anything from 1850 to 1920 (I guess!).

But thanks for the info regards welding <whatever it is> I should stop obsessing about thi9s cheap old vice and just get on with chopping it up and making it work! I can't help being enthusiastic about it though, maybe it's the Swindens effect all over again. They are irresistible objects when you strip them off to naked bare metal (note how I avoid the term cast steel LOL)

 

[Screwdriver]

It's quite common to come across old leg vices without the wedges, I really wouldn't worry too much about wrought iron, just go with mild steel.

Yes. I should remember this particular vice is beyond an historic restoration, it's too far gone. Can't see how it would hold together at all without those wedges, how else does the bracket attach or the spring? I will go with mild steel and stop being so obsessive. I'm still going to **** those brackets with a hammer though, just to make them look "right" if nothing else. The rest of it will be an exercise in sculpture with an angle grinder.

 

[olek]

I should probably put this in the "wanted" section (I will too) but since I have your attention, does anyone have any odd scraps of wrought I could use to fabricate a new taper wedge?

The full info is in this thread: http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/restoring-a-post-leg-vice.77113/#post-1074481

Meanwhile I will have a rummage around my own personal scrapyard I laughingly refer to as "the garden".

Old brittle balcony ornaments are possibly wrought iron (? DESPITE THE FACT THEY WHERE CASTINGS ,?)

I have been said that old grills (made of vertical rods) find in castle and older houses where that laminated metal . (so if you go at night at a castle, you have many in England) you can obtain a small piece using a metal saw

https://www.bca-materiauxanciens.co.../garde-corps-ancien/balustres-ancienne-fonte/

 

[Screwdriver]

I think** when you cast iron it has to contain a certain set of elements or impurities for that trick to work and it therefore becomes "cast iron" by virtue of the fact it has to be castable. Wrought on the other hand is or was literally wrought (i.e. forged) by being folded and pounded until most of the impurities were squeezed and burned out.

We are beyond that now though and I am going to simply forge some mild steel brackets and get on with it or this saga will never end! Thanks for the offer though

 

[nickk]

I do repairs on w.i. occasionally & always choose to mma weld it rather than mig,as I find the wire bounces, spits & doesn't fuse aswell to the parent metal,& produces a scruffy weld bead.
however it forges so much easier than M,S. YET lacks the tensile strength & of course have you noticed how much more corrosion resistant it is?

 

[Brad93]

Yes. I should remember this particular vice is beyond an historic restoration, it's too far gone. Can't see how it would hold together at all without those wedges, how else does the bracket attach or the spring? I will go with mild steel and stop being so obsessive. I'm still going to **** those brackets with a hammer though, just to make them look "right" if nothing else. The rest of it will be an exercise in sculpture with an angle grinder.

Could get the brackets cut out then forge them into final shape and give them a hammer finish. Leave the scale on there for authencity.

 

[HughF]

Pm me some details of the wedge... all the rest of the uk supply of leg vices are with me and my old man down here in dorset we've probably got a spare wedge.

 

[Keith 66]

Re corrosion resistance, I had a centreplate from a boat blasted & galvanised 20 years ago, she was 70 years old then & the plate had lost little thickness in that time. The galvaniser showed me some wrough iron boat fittings he had recently done & the acid pickle really eats into the stuff & shows the grain, you will see the same effect on old anchors. The pickle leaves a very different pattern on steel.
I had to do a keelbolt replacement job on a yacht a couple of years back, the owner got a price from Topp's & had to sit down when he heard it! I ended up putting galvanised steeel bolts in.