Ok so as had said i’m buying an old tieing kit off of ebay. the vice as seen below is an old one. but in your own oppions it should be good to start correct? I want to make sure I I’ll enjoy tieing before i buy the $80 kit from cabbella’s also where can i get a whip finishing tool.
How much are you paying for it? Just curious. I saw a fly tyers kit at a TJ Max store for around $ 25 - 30, it had the vice (kind of like the one on the pic), tools, some materials and a book about fly tying.
I started with a cheap $ 19 fly tying kit that is still in great shape so it depends how much you tie and what type of flies you tie because as soon as you start dealing with bass bugs you need a descent vice that can hold the pressure. I use a Danvise and I’m happy with it.
If you are panfish flies it looks ok.
I hope this helps a little.
Good luck and happy tying.
As long as it holds your hooks tightly, is easy to adjust and is sturdy enough to allow you to work it’s an adequate vice. In a pinch I have succesfully tied flies using vice-grip locking pliers!
However, the quality of the materials and tools do make a difference, especially for beginners. While an expert tyer with many years of experiance might be able to make a perfect fly with less that perfect tools, the beginner will be frustrated to the point of giving up. I speak from experiance…
Try out your vice, if it holds the hook firmly and it seems like you can adjust it for different size hooks then use it. However, if it gives you a fight and hooks seem to break (too much pressure can fracture the hook steel) or if hooks move or slip out when you apply thread pressure THEN JUNK IT!
The one pictured looks a little on the flimsy side. The jaw style looks like it could apply good pressure, but that little tiny cap screw holding the jaws to the vertical seems suspect. Most vices use at leat a 3/8" dia. shaft on the vertical and have a much larger screw/bolt at that critical joint. Lots of vice jaws are made from hardened steel, I suspect that this one is not.
Buying a decent vice improved my tying tremendously and made it much more enjoyable.
the vice and a ton of supplys are going to cost me 5 bucks 10 with shipping. the vice is about 50 years old and comes from an estate the owner had it from his youth and it was the only vice he ever had. It was origenally bought from sears. I alread thought about over hauling (replacing rivets with nuts bolts and teflon washers) it once it comes in with. i’ll chk out the tjmaxx by me and see if they have any kits aswell. ,oney is extreamly tight till my pention comes in.
Wait on any other kit until this one comes in, perhaps this will meet your needs. If you get into tying you will want a different vise than comes with any kit so you might as well wait.
for the whip finisher hook and hackle is a good place to order supplies and equipment from, along with any of the sponsors of this site. till your pension comes through learn to hand whip finish or use a pen as a half hitch tool.
http://www.onlineflytyer.com/halfhitch.asp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKnlD0MLrwM
Oh yea welcome to FAOL from Western Washington and Thank You for your service to our country
Eric
thanks I’ll do that
$10 with a ton of supplies? Am I reading those numbers right? That’s McDonalds lunch for two. Big woop.
Maybe I’m a tad obsessed (still in denial), but I’d love to have a 50-year-old vise just for the nostalgia. Lots of other materials included… well cripe!
I have an old Sears shotgun… not worth much to the $ chasers, but age, history, and sentimentality make it priceless. I have similar things that to me are worth more in history than functionality or value can dictate.
I guess what I’m saying is, this is a good investment if you value the history, thought, feeling, nostalgia of a thing. If you’re just looking for “whatever” to start flytying, then this is not what you’re looking for. This is something to be treasured, so make the decision for yourself if you want to invest (10 bucks is a steal).
Starter kits get bad reps, but they’re actually a good value. I still have all the tools and vise from my starter kit of 15 years ago, plus some of the materials.
If you honestly think this is something you will enjoy and give your heart to, invest in the vise and materials, plus get a starter kit. If it’s something you just want to try out to see if you like it, just go for the kit and have a whack at it.
Hi Charlaine,
See how the vise does, as Kengore advised. If it doesn’t hold the hook at least reasonably well, then it can be a frustration. You may have to play with it some, adjust where the hook sets in the jaws, etc. to get it to hold OK.
If the vise does not hold the hook, no matter what you try, then again like Kengore advised, junk it.
However if you got much at all in the way of supplies with the vise, then you got a great deal on the Ebay stuff.
If the vise is no good, then you may want to consider replacing it. If you do decide to get a different one, I can recommend buying an older Thompson “A” vise. An old “A” in good condition should cost you at the very most $30, which includes shipping, and with luck you might not have to pay more than $20 with shipping.
If you buy an “A”, older is better than newer, as some of the old ones were really well made. I have a couple, and if was going to buy another I would get one in a red box, and if you can tell look for one in a red box that has no black border line around the cover. The black border line runs around the cover of the box, about 1/4 inch in from the edges. Look for one that looks to be in good shape.
Don’t buy a kit. Most of the guys who have responded to questions about a kit over the years all say the same thing, “don’t buy one.” You will pay for stuff you will never use, and a lot of the time the quality is none too good.
As was mentioned above, Hook and Hackle, a FOAL sponser, is a good supplier. I bought my Matrelli knock off whip finisher from them about 13 or 14 years ago, still use it, and the quality is excellent. It set me back about $3 or so.
Regards,
Gandolf
Here’s my thoughts (which probably mirror most of what others have said):
Get the vise and supplies from Ebay. You may find the supplies you get are decent and will probably be better than what you get out any kit. Once you get the vise and supplies you can play around with it and see if it’ll hold a hook well. Like others have said, THAT’S what a vise is for. Yes, you can invest in a vise that does other stuff (rotary, tube flies, etc) but when all is said and done, a vise that holds hooks well and is sturdy is all you need. Heck, Lee Wulff tied flies with NO VISE!! But then again most trout reels just need to hold backing, fly line and leader and look how much we pay for them!! 
You could also go to a local fly shop with the vise and talk to the owner and get his opinion.
As for the kit, my suggestion is this - decide on 5 or so flies you normally fish in your area and their sizes. Look around on the internet (or thru books if you have them) and find the patterns for those flies. Make a list of the materials you would need to tie those 5 flies and get those materials. Then practice on tying those flies using the materials. This way you’ve invested your $$$ in materials you’ll actually use and wil wind up with flies you’ll actually fish. Once that’s done and you decide you’ll like to continue pick some more patterns and repeat the process. You’ll be surprised how fast you build up a supply of materials.
hey CharlaineC,
It seems like you will enjoy this vice, you are already making plans on how to improve it, not that you need nobody’s ok but I say, go for it man!
If you are still interested in that TJMaxx set and you can’t find it over there then send me a pm, I can probably get if for you and send it and I won’t charge you a penny for shipping (just the value of the set)
Good luck
It’ll work. Good thinking on starting in-expensively. A lot of people start out big and don’t end up tying. If you enjoy it and find out you are addicted to it, you can always upgrade. My wife bought me a little cheapo kit years ago. Maybe $13.00 for the whole kit. I tried it and the next day I bought over a $150.00 on tying materials because I had used up all the materials that first day. My wife thought I should slow down on the buying since I had never flyfished and didn’t even have a rod or reel. Then the fun started. Good luck and remember; tying is only as expensive as you make it.
Go tie a fly,
Gary
Just a note to other beginners looking into vices Thanks to the wounderful folks here I found this great review set of great help. Fly_Tying_Vise_Shoot-Out. It really open my eyes to some things