I believe my initial fix was stumbling upon my mechanics - YouTube. It even got me to buy for CHF 5 an old vise and restore it with equipment and colors bought for maybe north of CHF 20 to turn into a vise I use probably twice a year or so.
The vise is “Germany” branded, so post WWII, but it looked really old and rusty when I bought it. And one of the screws holding the “Backen” (jaws?) has a thread that matches neither mm nor inches.
Anyways, if anyone else is affected, you’re not alone.
If you can get any BBC shows I recommend The Repair Shop series. It’s been going for about 5 years now and always have fascinating restorations. It’s not all mechanical stuff (some jewellery, paintings, ancient teddy bears and book restorations, etc) but I’m always drawn to the clocks and watch repairs. Unbelievably fine work.
Oh, don’t even start me on Covid-era distractions! Martijn Doolaard rebuilding his Italian stone cottages! Hours and hours, and all paid for by Patreon.
Three hours? You cannot be serious, @bossybaby! I shied away from watching Oppenheimer as it lasts about that long and at least they detonate nuclear bombs in that flic IIUC …
After WW2 would be any of the occupation zones or FRG/West Germany (or East or GDR, though this seems unlikely).
Early in the 20th and in the entire 19th the term was used in the sense of “Made in G.”, says my AI. An origin rather than a brand.
The thing is called SchraubStock in German, each side/half indeed a Backe. Colloquially the side touching the clamped good is often also called Backe, more precisely the StirnSeite of it.
(side note: the smaller and usually lighter mobile version applying the same principle is called SchraubZwinge)
