The TRHA were the grateful recipients of an “Oliver” pattern-maker’s bench vice last Saturday morning. The Oliver vice was amongst a very few “gold-standard” woodworking vices in days of yore but is no longer made. 

A “pattern” is the wooden form used to produce a sand mold for metal casting in a foundry.Making a pattern was a highly skilled woodworkers job and a good vice was essential. The Oliver, Emmert, Yost and other vices were made large, heavy and built to last in daily use. They rotate, swivel, will hold work that is not parallel and were essential to doing exacting work. In our care, as is the case with a number of our larger tools, this is a working tool and not an exhibit but we all know that the best way to show and demonstrate the use of an old tool is to set it up and use it.

Several of our volunteers reassembled the vice on Saturday and it is now in working order and no doubt will see immediate service in the support of the restoration of the TH&B Caboose.

Our thanks to Tim McCarthy of Toronto for the donation of this fine working artefact!

Posting by Michael Guy; Photo by Lance Gleich 

If you have any artefacts or historical records to donate, do contact us by clicking here.

Click on each image for a closer look!