I am always looking for ways to make workholding simpler and less expensive. It feels like a duty after writing 36 books on workbenches.
I love my Benchcrafted Hi Vise – we own five of them. But not every woodworker can afford the hardware. And you have to build the vise with wooden components, which requires some time, skill and machines.
The less-expensive option is this Taiwanese-made carver’s vise, which you can find at many woodworking suppliers. I got mine on sale from Infinity Tools. StewMac sells a version that they have upgraded and that luthiers love.
No matter where you get it, I think you’ll be impressed. The vise’s swiveling jaws will hold almost any shape. And because the jaws are coated with a tough urethane, the grip is incredibly tenacious.
The vise attaches to the workbench via a long post that threads through a dog hole or holdfast hole in your workbench. You can cinch the bolt below the benchtop tight so the vise won’t move. Or you can leave it a little loose so it swivels.
The only real downside to the vise is that you have to have a hole in your workbench to make things work. The Hi Vise can clamp almost anywhere (even to a truck bumper).
This vise is an excellent substitution for a shaving horse. It’s a little slower in use, but takes up almost no space.
— Christopher Schwarz
Publisher’s note: This is the final entry in our 2022 gift guide. Every year we think that *this year* will be the last. That we couldn’t possibly come up with a new list for the following year. If we do manage to do a gift guide for 2023 it will be our 10th gift guide.
To read previous entries in the gift guide, click here.
Thank you for another great list. Always a little highlight of the year and long may it (and you all!) continue.
Take care.
There is a similar one here in the UK:
https://www.axminstertools.com/axminster-trade-vices-pattern-makers-vice-107038?queryID=2a905086034234854801fcc612fa0a61
I every year I wade through countless gift guides and none of them worth a damn. Yours however is a different animal, what great suggestions. I’ve already purchased a couple of the knife sharpeners and no doubt they’ll be a couple more purchases coming up thank you
I always look forward to these. Thanks.
This vise is a great product. I used it when carving a 42” wide Bellamy-style eagle and it was secure for mallet work on the end of the wing, 20ish inches outboard.
I’ve always been told that a pattern-maker’s vice is massive overkill for anyone who isn’t frequently working with the complex shapes involved in building casting patterns for large machinery. This one does have at least one fewer axis of rotation, and is elevated, and removable, and reasonably priced… Does that make the difference, or is past received wisdom wrong?
Vises such as this are why I don’t think you need an Emmert. I know chairmakers who love their patternmakers’ vises. But I have never seen the need for one.
Ok; just a matter of one or two steps too far, then.
I can see why folks who spent their career manufacturing wooden patterns for fairly precise sand-casting might have benefitted enough from that additional bit of optimization to justify it. But most of us aren’t in full scale production mode, and can tolerate slight variation better than a locomotive gear train could…
For me, the extra height of these is the best feature of all.
Are the google eyes standard, or are they available as an option?
Follow on suggestion: Gift Guide – Donating to Woodworking related Charities
I’d add Blue Ox Historic Village in Eureka, CA to such a list.
Your gift guides are great and I hope you continue doing them. For me this year it was the Pentel Graphgear mechanical pencil. I bought a couple and they are excellent, exactly as described in your post. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Chris. Since transitioning over to waterstones recently (thanks for your feedback on the topic) from worn out diamond stones (7 yrs use), I really like the water stones but am not crazy about the mess. I solve this by putting old towels on the bench where the mat isn’t. It works but slows down things. I want to build a second bench so that I can keep the stones out all the time. I’ve decided on building the English jointers bench that Rex Kruger has discussed in his YouTube videos as it is inexpensive, goes together quickly and looks to be sturdy. The biggest debate for me has been what vise to put on it so that I (or my 11 year old daughter) can also use it for woodworking or I can use it for finishing while I move onto another project on the main bench. I’m thinking a carvers vise might be a good choice.
just decide on a vise before you build, so you can work out if it will fit. Made a 5ft version of his bench without planning for a vise Then found and Eclipse 9″ vise on the cheap, which doesn’t fit due to the bracing on the bench. So gonna have to pull the bench apart and move the bracing on the front left. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Certainly a very solid bench. All the best
Did the missing Hi Vise ever turn up?
Unless it sneaked in while I wasn’t looking…. no. I need to do a count.
I’ve had this vise for about 25 years, and wouldn’t be without it. Originally purchased for building/carving a muzzleloader, it’s been used for carving and luthier projects. I’ve even used it for bicycle work, another passion. Soon after its arrival, I made a batch of replacement jaws and faced them with some heavy cowhide a holster-maker gave me. If I was to purchase one today, I would go for the modified version StewMac sells—their upgrades are worth the few extra bucks. Take a few minutes to visit their posting, and have a look at their videos. Worth the price of admission. 🤷♂️
Love your gift guides! Keep up the good work!
This is the type of thing that I mount on a block of wood and hold in my side vise when I need it… I have a half dozen tools that are mounted on a block and that spend most of their life on a shelf. My work bench would be full of holes to accept all the different bases, or terribly cluttered if they were permanently mounted.
I was just using mine today. It has modifications to be a spoon mule, and, as of today, a couple of angled inserts so a roundish shrink pot blank can be secured for augering and chiseling. A really neat tool.
I can’t describe the value that you guys have in my life. Chris is directly responsible for being the loudest voice in my head on my woodworking journey, and his recommendations of David Charlesworth, Brian Boggs, Peter Follansbee, Jeanie Alexander, and many many more are the other voices in chorus who frequently drown out the black metal and hip hop and NPR (yeah, I think those three compliment each other nicely!) that are doing their best to compete for my attention.
You are the very first place I send new students who are interested in woodworking. You are the very first place I send veteran woodworkers who are doubtful that my hand tool skills aren’t really just smoke and mirrors, and are convinced that I have some secret room that houses my machine jointer and CNC routers. You occupy a solid place in my heart as the top five teachers I’ve encountered in my life (and I’ve never met any of you in person!)
This is all to say a gigantic, “Thank you,” that I can never fully repay, so I am doing my very best to pay it forward with my own students, if not by direct example in woodworking, then in conceptual example as your philosophies can cross media and mindsets.
Thank you all, more than I can express.
Thanks so much for these lists. Like everyone else commenting, I really look forward to them. If you have to make them shorter to keep them going, I’m sure we’d still find them useful.