An Essential Shop Tool: The Vise

A good bench vise is an essential tool in any shop. Here are tips and facts about those oft-overlooked necessities:

A blacksmith’s vise, aka a leg vise, is bolted to a work bench but has a leg that extends all the way to the floor. This leg transfers the impacts of hammer blows to the floor, making it well-suited to blacksmith and machinist work. Often considered hand-me-downs from Grandpa’s shop, blacksmith vises are highly collectible, and valid metal-working tools in any modern shop. 

Modern bench vises, technically known as “engineer’s vises,” come in a variety of designs. 

Some vises have round slide bars that are completely enclosed. Enclosure adds to their purchase price, but helps keep debris from clogging the screw mechanism. Vises with square or rectangular slide bars have their adjusting screw beneath or within the hollowed-out slide bar, to protect that screw from debris. 

Vises are rated according to tensile strength. Size and weight do not indicate strength when it comes to vises. A mammoth cast iron vise could technically be weaker than a smaller forged steel vise. Vise experts consider a vise rated at 30,000 to 60,000 pounds of tensile strength suitable for the abuse common to vises on farms.

Experts recommend vises should be mounted with the top of the jaws at elbow-height for optimum comfort when hammering or welding.