Malleable Iron

This Samson machinist's vise sits on my workbench. My father got it for free from the high school where he taught for 40+ years. It was my understanding that the school shop replaced it with a newer one and it would have ended up as scrap if he didn't take it. I'm guessing it was manufactured approximately hundred years ago. I've never had the heart to repaint it as my dad painted it in the late 80's,  a year or so prior to his debilitating strokes.

It has significant family history.

My sisters and I would crack walnuts that we gathered from the woods of Belmont County with it. I learned to do mechanical work using the vise -- from go-karts and Lawn Boys to rebuilding six cylinder engines.

Then, it seemed as though it would last forever.

Now I realize that, while it will most likely outlast me, it could easily end up as part of a scrap pile or sold-off in an estate sale or even  simply traded away for something perceived as "better".

It's a great vise. It is malleable iron rather than the cheaper and more brittle cast type.  Its jaws still close evenly and accurately, and in spite of years of the relentless hammering and clobbering, it has endured. Most of all it reminds me of my dad and our history together.

I hope (because it is the best of things *) that it will be around for another hundred years and will mean something to someone like it has to me.


* "The Shawshank Redemption"