I bought a Nor-Vise back in 1996 and have loved using it for tying wooly-buggers, strymphs, and other big flies. It made things much easier, but I continued to use my Thompson A clone for dry flies – the Nor-vise jaws were a pain for smaller flies and I didn’t care for it for dry flies.
Vulture6,
I had the old one and got the conversion and the fine jaw. I love them and I tie down to a size 22 I also tie big deerhair bugs, Atlantics and everything else you can think of…I’ve had no problems or complaints.
In fact, I have another well known vise that I use for travel, and I don’t use it for hair bugs because it’s been known to loose it’s grip(very frustrating). Well, I hope this helps
VEE
Vulture6
I have the fine jaws on my Nor and been using them for about 4 years now, lol seem every time Norm come out with an up date I get them. I tye everything on my nor from atlantic to small drys and dont use any other vise.
Ghost.
I feel I should add a little to my wife’s post. The Nor-Vise we bought was a very early model and second hand. It worked just fine, but wouldn’t accept some of the new conversions and showed it’s age a bit. I talked to Norm and sent the vise in. What we got back was a vise with all the upgrades since our vise was made, all polished and pretty, looking and acting like a brand new vise. All this at no charge. We did order both the conversions you have listed, as well as the clamps that allow the vise to be used as a traveling vise. Norm really stands behind his product.
I can’t add anything to what VEE said about how it is to tie on the Nor, she won’t let me use it.
I just wanted to comment on the Nor-Vise. I have been tying flies for almost 51, yes, 51 years. I purchased a Nor-Vise a couple of weeks ago and I am extremely happy with it. I have tied trout streamers and also flies down to size 26 with no problem. I have had Renzetti in the past including the pro model, but the Nor-Vise is now my number one fly tying vise.
All this talk about the Nor-Vise (and I watched his video on YouTube) and I just might have to retire my Renzetti.
Ever since watching his video, I have harbored serious thoughts of retiring my Renzetti Traveler.
House is nearly paid for…Hmmm…
Hello,
I got a Nor-vise for about 2 weeks and it is another dimension compared to the others.
Spinning dubbing on the thread, even seal fur dubbing which is difficult to do by hand, is easy and makes for tighter bodies. The automatic bobbin is a plus, I had to use my other vise with a regular bobbin and found myself waiting for the bobbin to rewind! A great tool.
I bought a Nor-vise around six years ago. After using the Nor-vise for about two weeks, I sold my DynaKing Barracuda, now I wouldn’t swap my Nor-vise for any other vise on the market. The one time I did have an issue with the jaws, Norm sent me a new set immediately free of charge. First class guy who makes a first class product.
This thread is interesting. I have a HMH Spartan vise and like it. I an now seeing how a rotary vise would help me speed things up some. I was going to get a Renzetti Traveler but after watching some of the NorVise videos I’ll have to think about one of these. My concern is the hook sizes. I don’t really see on the Norvise web site the hook size range. My HMH with the Universal Jaws allow me to tie anything I have needed to. I am currently tying on 3/0 heavy saltware hooks for a trip, and regularly tie #24 for local midge fishing.
Can I tie 3/0 to #24 with a single set of jaws on a NorVise? Or would that require more than one set of jaws?
I too have had a Norvise for 3 -4 years and I have the in line jaws which it can with. I have tyed hooks from a size 2 to 20 with it. The jaws seem to hold the hooks sufficiently. The Norvise is my everyday tying vise and seems to work fine. I have found that in some cases on larger hooks, where I tend to put more pressure on the thread when tying, it requires a little more adjusting of the vise jaws to hold the hook firmly. Prior to purchasing the Norvise, I used a Regal for larger flies. The Regal has superior large hook holding ability in my opinion but does not have the rotary feature. I still use it for some tying. For smaller flies I had the Renzetti Traveler. I use to tye size 8 - 20 hooks on it. Since I have gotten my Norvise I have not used it and feel the Norvise is far superior to the Traveler.
The smallest I’ve tied is an 18 and that’s the smallest I fish, the largest tied to date is a 9/0 with the same set of fine point jaws. On the bigger hooks you push them down into the jaws instead of tightening out on the tip.
From a customer service standpoint, there’s no one better than Norm.
I saw more norvises at the NW Fly Tyers Expo this year than I’ve ever seen in one place. Norm is winning over tyers one vise at a time !
I just read your post and I had to try a 3/0 hook just to see for myself. At one time I tied hair jigs for bass fishing professionally. The 3/0 Daiichi bleeding bait hooks fits fine with room to spare with the small jaws. I tied flies down to size 26.
This very knowledgeable fly tyer told me that everyone that owns a Nor-vise hates them and that they are junk and that they shouldn’t even be considered. Then I see this post by people that use them. By the way, he sells Dyna-King - go figure.
The key words there are “very knowledgeable”, and he’s probably never touched one.
When I first saw the Nor-vise in the early 90’s (1990’s that is) at one of the shows, I thought Norm was like the gadget knife guy, I couldn’t believe anyone could really do the tricks that he did on that vise. When I told Norm that story he got a good laugh.
I have been tying with a Nor for well over ten years. As a big bugger addict there is no vise better for tying up big ole buggers as well as other big streamers and nymphs. I got the fine point conversion jaws when they came out and can now tie down to as small as I want to.
A good friend of mine is a commercial salt water tier. He has said many times that switching to the Nor vise when he got started is what enabled him to tie quality flies quickly enough to stay in business. At one time Chris even had a sewing machine motor attatched to the vise to speed his tying up and the thing never missed a beat.
There is a bit of a learning curve, but you will be learning new and better ways to tie flies.
I use the Nor-Vise with the fine point jaws and big rear hub. Wouldn’t trade it for anything. Well, a million bucks I would trade for and then I could just buy a new one!
I ONLY use the fine point jaws and tie tiny flies and huge 10+/0. The key is to bury the shank in the jaws and tighten just tight enough to hold the hook. You’ll want the auto bobbins too.
How long did it take to get up to speed with the vise? My local fly shop gave me one, and I returned it the next day. I didn’t like the bobbin, or having to reach for the bobbin on the holder. Winding thread on the bobbin slows down the tying prosses. I tie for the shop and that makes a big differance. Our three day Sowbug Round-up finished yesterday with 100+ fly tyers showing up.
I saw a Danvise there for $75 that will do everything the Norvise dose, and I won’t have to spend extra money to buy excessories.
krauseb, you’re right: those bobbins do turn some folks off the NorVise. my answer was to buy an Ekich bobbin (sponsor here). no need to re-spool the thread–just put the thread spool right on and tie with all the advantages of a retracting bobbin. it made all the difference in how well i could use the NorVise. now i can tie those Carrie Stevens streamers without taking 10 minutes to wind the floss and thread down those l-o-n-g shanked hooks! i’ve not seen another vise that will spin as fast and easily as a NorVise with its heavy hub, either, though i don’t claim to have seen every vise ever made.
i have the fine point jaws for when i tie something small with a little tail, which is frequently. i use the original straight jaws for streamers and darts because the spin motion is easier.
To answer your question krauseb, it took me about a month or so to get use to tying with the Norvise. Keep in mind I am a recreational tyer not a commercial tyer so I only tye flies a few evenings a week. It was a little tough getting use to the bobbin and I still find myself winding the thread rather than spinning the vise sometimes.
