MikeM’s Vise

During last month’s foray into the alien planet known as Newengland I stopped in South Portland to visit MikeM, who had emailed me about a wheel-handled vise he found at a flea market up there.

Since I have been on the hunt for piano makers’ vises for several years, and since he was literally less than a mile off the interstate, stopping to check it out was a no-brainer.  The vise itself was a head-scratcher.

It is definitely in the same vein as all the others I have seen, and no two have been identical thus far, this one was a real outlier.

The general configuration certainly conformed to the style, but the travel of the face was quite short, and where in the world did that five-spoke wheel come from?

One thing that definitely made me smile was the factt hat he had taken my advice and made some polissoirs himself from whisk brooms.  I was honored to add to his collection with a genuine Roubo Polissoir from Don’s Barn.

Thanks Mike for sharing this peculiar tool with me.  I will look fine alongside all the others in the book.