Just zipped out to the shed to check mine. 🙂
Record No 4. Bought it from a bicycle shop over 40 years ago when they were closing down to retire. The old guy reckoned it had been on the bench since he was an apprentice and probably from when the shop opened in the 1880s or 90s. Is that likely? Have they been making them unchanged all that time?
Cost me £1 and I had to lug it home 3 miles walking. I’ve never bolted it down, it’s too useful as a mobile tool, and hefty G clamps for when I want to fix it down. However it probably never gets the sort of heavy use it was designed for.
Now I’ll have to treat it with a bit more reverence. 🙂