My HMH Standard Vise Review
Since getting the tying room unpacked and putting everything back into place I have had the pleasure of setting my vise up and using the new granite base that I bought for it. The vise is beautiful and I love the granite for looks and truly better than the pedestal in my humble opinion that came with the vise. Now I use to tye on a Renzetti master and hated having to always align the axis when going from size 16 hooks to saltwater and then to size 8 and so on. I also disliked that I had to put the Clouser minnow attachment on just to tye this fly. What I also found is that I never used the true rotary portion of the vise for tying flies. I used it for just being able to turn the fly to look at the other side. Now I had encountered a few other issues with the vise. So one day I pulled out my old Thompson Pro II pedestal vise that I use to tye and loved it. The trouble was not being able to tye Saltwater and Bass flies on it. It was great for trout flies.
So after numerous months of trying this and that I had seen the HMH Standard vise and just love the fact of simplistic and easy to use with minimal to no adjustments at all. So after giving it a try in person I bought it and never regretted it. Here is what I have found.
1) Jaws require no tweaking when going from one hook to another of the same size.
2) Small tweaking of jaws needed when going lets say a size 14 to a size 8. After that it acts like line 1 above.
3) This vise can tye all flies that the Renzetti or Dynaking Barracuda can. For most Trout flies I use the standard jaws. When tying tiny midges I change the jaws out in about 30 seconds or less and have a nicer access for these smaller hook sizes. For Salmon, Bass and saltwater flies I change out the jaws again in 30 seconds or less. This vise is extremely versatile and easy to use
4) I have the option to turn the fly and look at the other side when I want at any time or not at all if I want it to be that way.
5) Great hook holding power
6) nice material clip that is out of the way and handy when needed
7) I can angle the head up and down in my position I want to tye in very quickly like a Regal
Plenty of room for my hands. Now this was another selling point for me on a vise like this, because I did feel a little cramped on most of the rotoary vises that I did look at.
9) The vise is well built and it shows.
10) if one wants you can have a bobbin rest and or also add a back profile plate for it. It also has an additional option that you can purchase if you need the vise to be able to tye tube flies.
I do highly recommend this vise for all to take a look at and try. Now please understand that this vise and opinion are mine and others may love a Renzetti or a Dynaking or a Peak or Regal and so on. What I am saying is this vise is right for me and am NOT putting other vises down. I also used Renzetti to compare it to because I tyed quite a few years on a Renzetti vise. There are a lot of good vises on the market and this after searching and trying was the right one for me.
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