Bench vise with arm on the side?

[Mac53]

Hello everyone,

I purchased an old bench vise earlier today, but it is completely different from any I have ever come across. I seem to remember seeing a picture of one in a book or online, but searches have yielded nothing.

The vise base / jaws look typical; they are non-swivel, maybe about 4", fairly heavy duty. The moving jaw has no rotating handle to move it in and out, nor does it have a hole for one.... There is no screw that runs the length of the vise, just the slide. The right side of the slide has little ridges running vertically. The vise has a very nicely made large arm that swings front to back coming off the side. The vise is frozen at the moment, but looks like an easy fix. I can only imagine this is some type of....friction vise?

Any info would be greatly appreciated, or even just what the actual name of what these things are called.

I don't have any photos at the moment, but I will post some a little later.

[mikeswrenches]

This vise was patented by Anson Stephens of Brooklyn, NY.  I had a 3 1/2 in. One that I sold last week.  I still have two of the smallest ones that have 2 in. jaws.

They were sold by Tower & Lyon and are shown in their reprint catalog.  A very pricie vise at the time.

The below link is for a previous thread on this vise.

http://www.papawswrench.com/vboard/index.php?topic=7925.0

Mike

[Mac53]

Thanks Mike!