Unusual Tool

[Donhe7Participant @donhe7]

Having just purchased my latest issue of MEW (Issue 172), I turned to Scribe A Line, to see a long lost item, which I used many times in my early years.

This device should have attached a brass nameplate identifying it as “THE STEWART HANDY WORKER”, which, as described, becomes a grindstone , (as pictured), a vice (with the “anvil” fitted, also, with the grindstone removed, a square socket will be seen, into which a square-shanked drill or bit can be fitted, which can be used to drill or bore an item laying on the “table” which fits in place of the “anvil”, this having a right-angled “fence” at the end nearest the hand-wheel.

Also available (or supplied with it), is a miniature “blacksmiths’ chisel” (do not know the correct name for a fixed cutting cold-chisel,as used by a blacksmith

for cutting metal bars (hot), so perhaps someone could contribute the correct name for this item.

Another attachment for the “tool” that we used a lot was a pair of “pipe jaws”, which were fitted to the two pairs of bent lugs on the “moving section” and the “fixed section”, these being a series of flat metal plates rivetted together with space between the plates so they can slide together to allow the shallow “v-shaped” notched jaws to hold the pipe.

Far from being “hopeless as a vice”, ours was found to be extremely useful, as it was much more precise than the alternative 6 inch blacksmiths vice!!!

 

donhe7

[Donhe7Participant @donhe7]

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Hi Donhe7, we have one in our local museum at Homebush, about 50k west of Christchurch. There was a bit about the STEWART HANDY WORKER in Model Engineer a few years back, there was also a similar one of a different make.

The fixed piece used with the chisel is called a Hardie, and the correct name for the chisel is either a Hot or Cold Sett, depending on whether you are working hot or cold (different cutting edge).

Because of the way the blacksmiths vice is constructed the jaws become less parallel the more you open it, but they stand a bit of hammering, more so than the ordenary engineers bench vice. Ian S C

[Donhe7Participant @donhe7]

Hi there Ian, yes, you are right about the blacksmiths vice re non-parallel action of the jaws, also, the absolute abuse which they had afflicted upon them, ours was so worn that it had about two inches worth of washers to enable the jaws to close fully.

Thanks for the info about the Hardie, I’d never heard of that one before, I know that the one we had had the other parts with it, originally it was mounted on a post out in the yard on the farm, until someone backed into it and thereafter it became a portable vice, extremely handy, as you can imagine!

I tried to find out where ours disappeared to after my fathers’ demise, but nobody could tell me anything about it, so it’s now lost forever, unfortunately

 

donhe7

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Hi Donhe7,

 

The square hole in a traditional anvil is known as the ‘hardie hole’. That describes it’s purpose exactly.

 

Best regards,

 

Terry

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

The Hardie hole is also used to hold a Fuller which is used in conjunction with a similar shaped tool for forging shapes, or necking down abar or similar. Blacksmith work is a real science when you get right into it. Ian S C

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

The Hardie hole is also used to hold a Fuller which is used in conjunction with a similar shaped tool for forging shapes, or necking down abar or similar. Blacksmith work is a real science when you get right into it. Ian S C

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