As is well known by practitioners in the art, a typical vice is configured with parallel jaws having opposed faces, for routinely and securely accommodating essentially planar workpieces such as conventional lumber and blocks of wood having fixed thickness throughout. Articles having varying shapes and contours such as horseshoes have been elusive to clamp securely in traditional vices especially using portable equipment and associated tools. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that this horseshoe clamping challenge is commonly encountered by ferriers seeking to service horses in the field, at the ranch, at exhibits, contests or rodeos.
Practitioners in the art will understand that, even if a workpiece of other article having different thickness and/or having varying contours throughout were to be firmly held in place with a conventional vice apparatus known in the art, there would still be a tendency for the object to be repositioned, twisted or otherwise become dislodged while the article is worked—because of an insufficiently secure grip. Accordingly, what is needed by ferriers and other practitioners frequently faced with the challenge of effectively clamping workpieces or articles having non-planar, contoured surfaces and irregular shapes is a portable vice that provides the capability to achieve prerequisite clamping by being emplaced at optimal locations thereupon.
Thus, the present invention teaches a dual-jaw vice that enables two locations of a horseshoe or other variously shaped and contoured article to be simultaneously clamped notwithstanding these locations having different attributes.