I can speak to the vise question. I have an HMH Spartan, it's a nice rotory vice at a good price (around $120). My buddy has an HMH Standard. It's got more machining and a nicer shaped base, but otherwise it's about the same, but it's also about $100 more. I like my vice a lot. It works well for my tying and can hold lots of different size hooks. There are also replacement parts available and replacement jaws in two other sizes (midge and huge - that's not really the name, but I can't recall the large jaw set name).

All the best,
Dave