I need opinions on these vices. Looking to buy one and have narrowed it down to these
Danvice
Anvil Apex
Griffin Odyssey Spider
Thoughts, experience, opinions with these vices.
Thanks
I have owned an anvil, workhorse of a vise. Not much in the way of looks. Kind of rough in overall finish. Ie some sharp edges on the jaws. Sold it but wish i did not now that my daughter is interested in tying.
No experience with the griffin. Played with the danvise once and it felt cheap in my hands. I am a little rough with things and saw myself trashing it in short order. Lots of great tyers swear by them. See Al and Gretchen Beattys website fore more info.
Best of luck.
Just got a Griffin and really like it but in all honesty,at $84/shipping included,it’s the most expensive vise I’ve owned.
My experience is limited to the Danvice. I haven’t tied either of the others.
Honestly, I’d rather tie “in hand” than use a Danvice. There is a simple equation, Function + Quality = Price. The Danvice tries to do a lot at a very low price. If the price is held low, and the function increases then quality must fall.
The other thing when I tied on it, was that access to the hook was awful (I’ve only used the standard jaws). To tie a tail on a small hook the vice forced me to hold my left hand above the hook, right in the way of where my right hand with the bobbin needed to swing through. It was a struggle. If you look at most vices either the hook is the highest point, or there is space between the hook and the head of the vice. This is for your hand to fit into. Hold something horizontal in finger and thumb and look where your hand is. Now with the head of the Danvice so close to the hook where do you put the vertical part of your hand?
Do you really need all the function of a Danvice? If not you’ll get a much better vice for your money if you choose something simpler and of higher quality.
Cheers,
A.
I use the Griffin for tying smaller flies, and a Regal for the saltwater flies. Really like the Griffin !
This is a good review of two of your candidates: http://www.flyfishohio.com/Vise%20Review%201/Fly_Tying_Vise_Shoot-Out.htm
Have played with all three, and I’d go for the Griffin. For the money, however, I’d probably just get a 2A and leave it at that. Next price level is the $150-200 range, and there are some much better vises in that range.
[b]I would go wit the Danvise, it is the only fly tying vise that can be set-up for a right-handed tyer, or a left-handed fly tyer. The Danvise has just about everything a beginner or intermediate fly tyer would ever need for dressing fly patterns. It is one of the best “Bangs For the Bucks” in fly tying vises!
Steven H. McGarthwaite (aka: Parnelli)[/b]
I have had a Danvice for at least 10 years, maybe longer now (Gary LaFontaine wasn’t sick yet, how long a go was that? I got it through his mailer).
I don’t know what being rough on a vice means, but I only tie about a hundred or so flies a year - nothing professionally or semi-professionally like some of these guys. It’s held up well.
The upside is that it’s cheap, it’s true rotary, and holds hooks between 2/0 (maybe even bigger) and size 20 very well.
(FWIW, I have not had problems with space to tie down to size 24, but there are other issues - see below)
There are two downsides that I can think of off the top of my head.:
-
Size 22 or smaller, you have to be careful (very careful) with hook placement. Hooks have gone flying (I suggest wearing glasses). I’ve tied to size 24 being very careful.
-
The stem is 10mm, not the standard 3/8". There’s barely any difference but enough so that a number of typical accessories that go around the stem don’t fit.
The Griffin and by a considerable margin. We had a number of Danvice models with issues like poorly formed jaws, chipped jaws, jaws rough enough that sometimes new tyers would drag their thread along the jaws and it would get caught and break, and screw thread quality issues. They were difficult to deal with and were abandoned.
Did not realize the pricing on the Griffin has changed so much… I use a 3ARP in my travel kit and it is enough for the purpose. It has been used for a lot of very large saltwater flies beyond the listed range and has been just fine.
I use the Griffin Oddesey. Most of my stuff is done on #10 through 2’s. Works well. I have tied thousands of flies and crappie jigs on it. My son uses it to tie on sizes into the 20’s with no problem. I’ve even used it to tie bass jigs on 4/0 and 5/0. Good vise, decent price.
I’m starting to like the Griffin. The only thing I wish it had was a cam lock and not the tightening knob. I’ve used cam lock vises - really cheap ones - before and I liked them. I don’t know that I would like the knob to tighten the jaws. Does that work good? Can you get it tight enough?
I will be tying mostly stuff around size 8-14 - mostly warm water stuff. I get to trout fish so little that its easier to just buy my flies based on the current hatch pattern where I get to go - mostly to the smokies.
Thanks to everyone for their opinions and thoughts.
Alan.
Ok Ok…So I’m looking around and reading reviews and have run across the Peak vices. Man, those things look great. Aircraft aluminum, stainless steel, brass, made in America. I’m liking it. Any opinions on either one…the rotary and non-rotary. I’m just not sure I need a rotary vice.
Thanks
Alan.
I like the prototype Al and Gretchen have on thier sight. Not only does the vise arm turn but, so does the jaws. They have a very nice sight with lots of information and Al is really nice also.
Good vises. The non-rotary are no thrills but hold a hook well. Easy to adjust, and the cam is definitely a improvement over the Griffin knob. The pedestals are a bit wobbly, but nothing a layer of cork or felt won’t fix.
Personally, I cannot imagine tying without a rotary vise. I rarely tie “rotary fashion” but I rotate the vise all the time while tying. I do not even think about it until I start tying on a vise that cannot rotate, and then I immediately start missing the feature. You do however pay for feature. This is really a slipperly slope of course, because if you are considering a rotary Peak, then the Renzetti Traveler is in the same price range.
Good luck.
Over on the UK fly Dressing site there is a similar debate. I posted the following which I think applies here. It doesn’t deal with specific models but more how they work.
[LEFT][i]Access to the hook is king. Can you get your hands all round the hook without having to move it in the vice? The vice should fit around you rather than you work around the vice.
Then there is the way that a vice holds the hook. There are five ways that they work. These are-
1, Jaws pulled into a Collette. Most cheap vices, HMH, and the Thompson vices.
2, Jaws pushed into a Collette. Dynaking.
3, Spring jaws, that are normally closed and you open them to place the hook. Regent type vices
4, Two plates, one fixed the other movable forming a lever and pivot. Rensetti, MP, Law
5, Loop and grove. Vossler made one and I have seen another, but don’t recall the make.
I’ve owned vices of types 1 through 4 on that list and used 5 on one occasion.
Push into Collette type has advantages over pull into Collette. Metal is stronger in compression than tension. That said the likes of the original Thompson and the HMH vices are of high enough build quality to overcome these. And the forces involved are not that great.
Spring jaws are the best budget option. There is no adjustment to make, just squeeze place and release, then away you go. Very simple and fast, but if you place small hooks on the edge of the jaws they can spit them out, This can chip the jaws.
No. 4 is my preference in a quality vice. The mechanical advantage that these jaws have on the hook is huge. To give you an idea, it is the same clamping technique that is used to hold a workpiece on a milling machine. There enormous forces are used, far more than you will ever get in fly tying. Gives a very good hook hold.
The loop and grove works by placing the bend of the hook into the loop then tightening so that the loop pulls the hook into a grove. A novel method that has the smallest contact area between vice and hook. The loop is under tension so there are mechanical doubts, I don’t know how well they last. They do not resist side to side pressure well, that is an unusual force to place on a hook while tying though.
If you are looking for a budget option then the Regent type spring jaws are the most solid and reliable at that end of the market. If you want to spend more then you have to make a lot of decisions about what you want from your vice. None will give you everything, even though some may claim to.
Cheers,
C.
[/i]
Read more: http://ukflydressing.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=7240#ixzz2JLrBi31d
Hope that sheds a little light on your dilemma
Cheers,
A.[/LEFT]
Alan,
I have some doubt on that last sentence. I would suggest each under-tension thread wrap introduces side to side pressure - perhaps not a lot per wrap, but in my experience the repetitive back and forth stresses the hold on these design vises.
Your thoughts?
Hans W
You are right Hans, What I mean is that it is very unusual to put much sideways pressure on while tying. I think we could agree that a thread wrap is light pressure, and spinning deer hair much greater. It is usuaual to pull to spin hair either towards or away from yourself. I cartainly don’t think they could stand that kind of pressure.
Yes repetitive wraps can work these loose, especially at the speed you and I can run down a hook shank. They are a novel idea but I have my doubts about them. I’ve only tied one fly on one, it wasn’t a bad experience but I would say I don’t get on with them. You have just reinforced my doubts.
Cheers,
A.
Even for a hack tyer such as myself, a rotary feature is a good thing to have. You will get to where you use it more than you ever thought and it is very good to check the different angle views of the fly. I find I tye a good bit with the hook at a 15 - 30 deg. angle so I can see the top of the fly while tying.
Alan,
I do ‘use’ the rotary feature on my vise.
Once you take the time to learn how to do this, and it is not complicated or difficult, you will build better flies faster. It makes fly tying easier, especially if the quality of the finished product is important to you.
However, if you don’t have the rotary feature, you can’t ever use it.
If you have the rotary feature and decide you don’t want to use it, you can still use the vise and not rotate it.
Put another way: there are things that you can do with a rotary vise that you can’t ever achieve with a non rotary vise. There is nothing you can do on a non rotary vise that you can’t do on a rotary vise.
Up to you. I doubt I’d ever want to tie on a non rotary vise again.
Buddy