Handscrews: the missing link

[Bill Houghton]

I picked up some handscrews at a yard sale last week.  Three of them were classic wood-screw handscrews, which I've seen but never owned, but one was an oddity, designed like the traditional wood screw tool, but with metal screws operating in T-nut-like inserts in the jaws.  In the picture, the handscrews are, left to right, a wood-screw model, the metal-screw model oddity, and a modern Jorgsensen-type handscrew with left and right hand threads.

The screws on the metal-screw oddity are buttressed toward the handle, which seems overkill, but the company (all I can read of the maker's label is "---o Vise Company," with, perhaps, a California location) was obviously determined to put a good product out there.

When we first moved back to California in 1973, the local library had quite a few old beginner's woodworking texts.  I recall one warning against getting the jaws on a wood-screw handscrew out of parallel, with a frightening picture of the screws splitting from being strained off-axis.  Sure enough, the middle screw on the metal-screw oddity is bent.

[oldtools]

Nice clamps!!

[Bill Houghton]

Nice clamps!!

I don't have a big enough space to spread out the whole handscrew clamp herd for a photo, although I guess I could stack them up.  I lucked into a couple of yard sales with lots of them a few years back, which kind of overwhelmed the handful I had up until then.

I need to get done with this going-on-forever house refurbishment, so I can make projects that require the use of the clamps!