Friday, January 16, 2009

A New Vise for 2009

I now have a new vise for 2009. Some have suggested that it's not a "vise" but rather a "vice". I say perhaps both are true.

I had been looking to get myself a new fly tying vise for Christmas, but just never quite got around to it. If you know me well at all, you'll know that I usually have to research, wait, research some more, wait again, and then finally make a big purchase. My search for a new vise fit this description completely. So even though I had found a good deal on a vise that I liked, I just couldn't quite make the buy. Oh well ...

However, when we were up in Utah visiting family last Christmas/New Years, I made a trip in to Cabelas. I was just going to look. Yeah, right! I found a great deal on an HMH Standard Vise, the more expensive brother to the vise I was orginally looking at. This vise normally sells for $240 to $280. Cabelas had one on sale for $99.88. I didn't let it sit on the shelf. I bought it and ran.


I've tied a couple of flies on it so far and I absolutely love it. It has a nice, solid pedestal base (no more having to clamp the vise to the table). The jaws are solid and easily hold the hook. Perhaps nicest of all is the rotary feature. I can turn the cam lever at the back of the vise and rotate the fly around. This is great for looking at the fly from all sides and makes it easy to wrap hackle on the fly. This is one awesome tool.

Well, now that I've got a new vise, I don't have too many excuses to keep me from tying up a lot of flies this year. I've set a fly tying goal for the new year, but more about that in a future post.

3 comments:

Sunflower-6 said...

It so awesome you have a new hobby. I hope you will enjoy making all those creepy, crawly flies for the fishies to eat!

Hans and Laurel said...

Hey didn't your cat eat a fly last year? Hope that doesn't happen again.

David said...

Congrats on the new vise. I know you've been looking for awhile. The next time I come over I'll have to try it out. If you end up with extra flies you need to use up, you can always send some my way.