I’ve been missing this thing.

posted in: Forging, The Daily Grind | 0

I have been missing my farrier vice since I got my new shoeing rig.

The picture below is of my old farrier setup with the step vice. It was an integral part of the way I shod horses for a good 25 years.

Anvil stand with foot vice.

A farrier vice is useful for a variety of things, but it is mostly useful for making hand made shoes and to have a freely movable way to lock down jigs for forging tools. In the picture above, it was being used to apply Drill Tech with the torch.

My new shoeing rig doesn’t really need the farrier vice and I have been getting along fine without it until now. I do really miss it from time to time as, even though it is not really a need, it would still make a few procedures a bit easier.

Since I didn’t really need it for the way I shoe horses from day-to-day, I just never got around to replacing the tool

That is all changing now.

That old vice was a compromise. Locked on to the anvil stand was cool, but wiggly. This new vice is super sturdy and very flexible. The only real problem I have with it is that my rig doesn’t have a good place to put it.

For now, I’m just going to leave it right on that rear work deck you can see. In the future, I may move some other tools up by by shoeing box and put it there. Either spot has its problems.

I need a bigger rig…

This is the lightest, sturdiest vice I’m aware of. It is also collapsible and can be broken down into two parts, the vice section and the collapsible feet section. Interestingly, the vice shaft fits perfectly into my anvil’s hardy hole and therefore the legs could be used for other tools as well.

That makes this thing even more interesting for future projects.

Will and I are gearing up to build some hand made shoes and forge some tools, so we both have been anticipating this thing as an important part of that.

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