Thread: New holdfasts

They look good and very useful.

Did he make them?

I like the 'button' of the first one, but I'd want to bend the arm so the button is horizontal to the bench or even fractionally up-turned. I also like the low height of the second one, but not the long reach and definitely not the vicious looking point. That's going to necessitate a visit to the emergency department some day!

Still, with six holdfasts, I'm jealous.

Originally Posted by Lumber Bunker

So my dad visited this past week and bought a gift with him.
Four new foldfasts!


pic one. my new favorite, has a button looking pad on it.
pic two. a great long flat reach one, this will be more useful than i know at the moment.
pic three. compared to the gramacy that i already had.

now i have 6! two of each

I'm looking for hold-downs at the moment. Was thinking of Gramercy if I can find a supplier with decent delivery rates, but these look pretty good.
3/4" shafts? (19mm)

As Pac Man asked, did your Dad make them? If they're commercial, do you know where he got them?
I like the overall length of the pointy one, but would knock the point off, I reckon, if it were mine.

I was speaking with my dad at Xmas (last year) and mentioned that i was looking for some.
I showed him some photos and a few months ago at the Glen Innes Highland festival there was a smith from the Dorrigo, (sorry no other details yet) and dad showed him the photos that i showed him.
He said sure I can make 'em!

A few months later the smith drops them off at the Armidale People's markets and dad slaps his forehead!
As you can see in the photos the non-gramacy hold downs are spring steel on the top and then change to bright steel after the bend... The smith only saw the photos of the hold down that shows it sticking out of the top of the bench and so only made what he saw and assumed nothing went through the bench. DOH!

So dad drilled and tapped the end and inserted a threaded length of bar into it... lol!
they work really well and are about 14mm or so I used a 11/16th auger to drill a few spots in my bench.

The workmanship is great, I like the button design best but the leaf one is cool too and it's not sharp just pointy.

I think this funny experiance is why so many others have had a hard time with getting blacksmiths to make these... Because they may not know what they are, what they are for, nor how they are used.
As in my example of only making the top part!

Originally Posted by Lumber Bunker

I was speaking with my dad at Xmas (last year) and mentioned that i was looking for some.
I showed him some photos and a few months ago at the Glen Innes Highland festival there was a smith from the Dorrigo, (sorry no other details yet) and dad showed him the photos that i showed him.
He said sure I can make 'em!

A few months later the smith drops them off at the Armidale People's markets and dad slaps his forehead!
As you can see in the photos the non-gramacy hold downs are spring steel on the top and then change to bright steel after the bend... The smith only saw the photos of the hold down that shows it sticking out of the top of the bench and so only made what he saw and assumed nothing went through the bench. DOH!

So dad drilled and tapped the end and inserted a threaded length of bar into it... lol!
they work really well and are about 14mm or so I used a 11/16th auger to drill a few spots in my bench.

The workmanship is great, I like the button design best but the leaf one is cool too and it's not sharp just pointy.

I think this funny experiance is why so many others have had a hard time with getting blacksmiths to make these... Because they may not know what they are, what they are for, nor how they are used.
As in my example of only making the top part!

Your Dad did well.
A shame they're not being made here commercially.
Still, it's a very small niche market.
I think I'll have to swallow my pride and gradually buy some of the Gramercy hold-downs, a couple at a time.
Delivery is the killer - costs more than the goods.

As an aside, I lived just near Dorrigo for 18 years, in a little place called Ulong, on the edge of the Wild Cattle Creek state forest. Great area.

they look really good, any chance of the blacksmith making some more

I'll follow up with dad re the contact.

Just need a better description than what dad provided.