Lost Art Press

Comparing Carver’s Vises (Don’t Waste Your Money)

Posted on by Lost Art Press
The green carver’s vise I adore.
The red version from StewMac.

I’m a big fan of the Taiwanese-made “carver’s vise” sold by many vendors with slightly different paint jobs. The vise is inexpensive and incredibly versatile, especially for chairmaking operations. Most students who take a chair class here seem to end up ordering one after using one of ours. The vise basically replaces a shaving horse.

Recently I decided to buy a few more of these vises so that every student could choose between one of the carver’s vises, or one of our also-excellent Hi Vises from Benchcrafted. 

After writing about my love of the green Taiwanese vise, several readers told me I should try the version from StewMac. The company has upgraded the vise to improve its performance.

I ordered one and immediately put it to work on the comb-back stick chair on my bench. Here is the short version of the review: Don’t bother with the StewMac. The upgrades are unnoticeable.

Instead, buy the Grizzly version of the vise, which is on sale for $129 with free shipping until Aug. 14. This is not a paid advertorial. If someone asked me to do something like that I’d tell them to poop up their own butts. The Grizzly version is basically half the price of the StewMac version (after shipping and taxes). And they work the same.

Let’s take a closer look.

The StewMac version is supposed to have hardwood jaws. They aren’t hardwood. They are a softwood – just like the jaws on the green versions.

The StewMac version has roller bearings to make the vise operate more smoothly. There is no difference in the speed or ease that both vises close. Both are swift. Neither is smoother than the other.

The StewMac version has a round handwheel with a plastic handle. The cheaper green versions have a simple cast handle. I prefer the simple cast handle. I don’t like plastic, and there is literally nothing wrong with the all-cast-iron handle. 

Nylon locknuts.

The StewMac version has nylon locknuts on the jaws. The green versions use common threaded bolts. This is the tiniest upgrade ever. Yes, the locknuts are smart and a bit better. They prevent the jaws from freezing up temporarily when you over-twist them, which is not a big deal. So yeah, good call. But it’s not worth the $74.75 extra for the StewMac.

Oh, and the StewMac is painted red instead of green. Whoever painted these vises – both the red ones and the green ones – had just failed an eye exam. The paint job is B- at best. But I don’t care about the paint job because it doesn’t hold the work.

Note the front jaw is ash instead of the softwood. After replacement, this jaw has yet to fail.

What I Would Upgrade

If I wanted to “upgrade” the green vise, here’s what I would do.

  1. Improve the jaws. They are softwood covered in a tough urethane. But after a while the jaws and their screws fail. I have fixed this on some of my vises by using a tough hardwood for the jaws, such as ash. 
  2. Lengthen the wingnut that secures the vise to the bench. The cast wingnut is pretty perfect. But I would prefer a bigger one so that I could get some more leverage to tighten and loosen the wingnut. It is easy to overtighten the vise by rotating the vise’s body in use. A larger wingnut would fix this problem.
On all these vises, a bigger wingnut (longer shafts on the balls, please), would be an improvement.

But other than that, the green vise is cheap and perfect. Unless you just prefer red.

— Christopher Schwarz

50 thoughts on “Comparing Carver’s Vises (Don’t Waste Your Money)”

  1. I had the green carver’s vise for many years, and and it is excellent at what it does. But, after building my version of the Benchcrafted Hi Vise, I find I prefer the wooden one, which is a little higher. I gifted my green vise to a woodworking mate to use in his shop.
    Cheers

    1. Stewmac sells the nylon locknuts and bolts/washers as a kit for $15. I bought the kit when they had free shipping (they offer this a couple times a year) to add to my green carvers vise. I think the upgrade is well worth the $15 (but maybe not so much if I would’ve had to pay shipping). The upgraded bolts are an odd shape (threaded on both sides with a flat area in the middle), so sourcing them elsewhere would be almost impossible. The upgrade kit definitely improves the ease of use in my opinion. I love my little green carver’s vise!

  3. Thanks man. I’ve had that vice in my Grizzly online checkout cart for several months now, but never pulled the trigger.
    Well that’s over.

  5. Whew! Just two days ago I ordered the one from grizzly. Thank you for setting my mind at ease!

    1. Same here. This is such a helpful, straightforward review, and I love the vise.

      I also learned when I saw the shipping notice that I happen to live 30 minutes from Grizzly’s HQ. Might have to visit their showroom.

  6. Sold in Australia and New Zealand as a Pattern Maker’s or Luthier’s vise.
    Local internet searches on Carving Vise will not bring this type of vise up in the search results.

  7. Chris,
    Nice timing…….I ordered the Grizzly vise, and it arrived this afternoon. I checked the prices as well as the different shades of green, and went with Grizzly After reading your article, I’m going to unbox it this evening.
    Thanks.

  8. Bought the Grizzly a few months back via the LAP recommendation. One of the absolute best additions to the shop I have purchased in a long time. Thanks!

  9. I’ve had one of these for something over a decade and love it, got mine from Japan Woodworker when they were still east bay area. From seeing your photos, I think mine has cleaner castings than the current ones and hardwood with hard rubber jaws. I drilled out a 4×4 to accept the bottom screw, added a piece of 1/2″ ply and I can mount it in my bench vise. The one big annoyance is that it’s really ungainly: any way I store off the bench seems unstable.

  10. The same green vise is available from Lee Valley for those of us in Canada…not quite as inexpensive as Grizzly but shipping (no free shipping outside the USA), duty, tax and the exchange rate would make it more than worth it.

  11. We visited your storefront last week and after looking at your vise I ordered the vise from Grizzly when we got home and I seen that it was on sale. One question, will it work for holding sticks while making tenons with a plug/tenon cutter and drill?

  12. I haven’t seen this for sale anywhere in Europe (or even any Asian marketplaces that ship cheaply to Europe like Banggood or AliExpress, though their search functions are bad, so I can’t be 100% sure), but I just sent an enquiry to Dieter Schmid in Germany about possibly adding it to their catalog. Here’s hoping! Looks like this is model number ASCK-302PU from a company called Fortune Woodworking Tools.

      1. Nice find! Did not come up in my search for ”vise” for some reason.

    3. I liked the comment not because I appove of it but because Marc cracks me up.

  14. So… aside from wooden jaws, what’s the functional difference in use between something like this, versus just mounting wooden jaws on an old-fashioned metal working bench vise?

    1. The entire device rotates 360°. The jaws are both swiveling and can clamp almost any object no matter how weird the shape and the spice can go anywhere. There is an 11/16 hole. Even a picnic table.

  15. Which vise do you prefer for your personal work?
    Hi Vise or the carver’s vise?

  16. I love the color red, maybe I’m tired, I don’t think I could live with the brightness of this red. Just looking at it in the pictures made my eyes hurt.

  18. “On all these vises, a bigger wingnut (longer shafts on the balls, please), would be an improvement.”

    That’s what she said. Sorry I had to… 🤣😂

  19. The most versatility comes when the green one is mounted on a articulating ball joint stand. Michael Fortune has a picture on his IG. I made a mount for my Wilton Pow-R-Arm so I can swap vise for a vacuum clamp which is super cool for making stools. I suppose it would even work for chairs….

  20. Carr-lane manufacturing makes wing nuts like those in a variety of threads and sizes. I forget what the call them so finding them in their site is a bit tricky

  21. A lot of us luthiers replace the plastic handle with one we turn ourselves. I think the jaws on both mine are poplar and have been strong enough. A little wax every couple of years is all it needs.

  22. I modified mine to turn it into sort of a spoon mule. Works great. I also have applied the Stew Mac upgrade kit, I like it.

    1. Could you possibly explain the modifications you made/how it’s used as a spoon mule?

  23. The jokes just write themselves all around. Well played, sir.

  25. How high off the bench surface are the jaws (can’t find height in dimensions anywhere)?

  26. Credit to Ulmia for the design. As far as I know these are all based on the Ulmia Universal Spannstock.

        1. You are welcome. They are definitely uncommon in North America but they pop up once in a while. I purchased one of the Taiwanese variants used some years ago. It was maroon and I think from Garrett Wade. I’ve seen and played with the Grizzly, Stew Mac, and at least one other, versions from Taiwan and they are all very similar and work just fine. The casting quality and general fit and finish of the Ulmia is considerably nicer and it operates more smoothly. The foot and washer on the Ulmia are cast iron rather than sheet metal. None of the differences are significant enough to warrant paying much more than the Grizzly goes for, unless you are the type that just needs to have an original.

      2. But we all know once something is invented it’s always made better and cheaper when they ship it over to Taiwan and China!

  27. I think we can all agree that either one is a great tool. I have the StewMac version and I should have bought on years ago!! Luthier here.

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