Maximum creativity, minimum frustration
Tying flies is a creative and relaxing endeavor, any tool-related frustration that occurs takes away from the experience. A good fly tying vise minimizes frustration and allows you to focus on having fun and creating something awesome at the tying bench.
More than a hook holder
A good tying vise MUST hold a hook steady and securely. But the best vise is not just the best hook holder. If holding the hook was the only function, any workshop bench vise would be better than any tying vise. But then you wouldn’t be able to rotate the fly and you’d hit your hand on the bench, causing lots of frustration.
The best vise is the biggest frustration minimizer!
Defining the best vise
The best vise is the one that once you learn how to use it, you never think about it. All the adjustments become second-nature. You never have to deal with the hook slipping out or the vise wobbling around.
The best vise makes it effortless to wrap materials evenly because you can get any size hook to spin perfectly on its axis. Angles are important in fly tying and the best vise allows you to rotate the hook and lock it in place so you can work on it from any angle.
Hook range
The best vise eliminates hook related frustration while working with every hook size from #28 to 8/0 with just some small adjustments – no jaw swaps or major part changes.
The vise for us
If you’ve been following our fly tying tutorial videos, you can already guess which vise fits our definition of the best vise: the Dyna-King Excalibur. It’s the vise of choice for each one of us at the shop. Over countless hours of tying on everything from Renzetti’s to Peak’s (both still great vises), we’ve realized the Excalibur is the ultimate frustration minimizer. It does its job without us having to think about it at all.
We’ve seen many tyers go from other brand vises to Dyna-King, but never the other way around.
The details
It feels like everything about the Excalibur is designed to minimize frustration and inspire creativity. From the grooves in the jaws to the jimping in the tension knobs, the devil is in the details.
In the video below our Capt. Mike P goes in-depth on why the Excalibur is his vise of choice:
Excalibur in action:
Applying a ton of pressure to secure lead eyes, and locking the vise upside down to work on a crab fly.
How To Tie: Bruce Chard Permit Choker Crab
Tying on a big ass hook, an Ahrex 270 5/0, and applying a lot of pressure on deer hair.
How To Tie: The Shark Bait Fly
Quickly adjusting the jaws mid fly to go from holding tiny articulating shanks to a hearty 2/0 hook.
How to Tie: The Finesse Changer
Tying on a size #14 nymph hook.
How to tie: the Wiredipity
Slowly rotating the fly on its axis to trim all angles of the deer hair head.
How To Tie: Mikes Snook Slider
Spinning the fly on its axis to apply UV resin.
How To Tie: Hamilton’s Cuda Tube
A tale of two bases:
Pedestal Base
The super heavy 6" x 6" base prevents the vise from moving around.
A pedestal base is the more common model as it can be used on virtually any desk.
C-Clamp
The C-Clamp absolutely locks the vise in place.
If you have the perfect height desk with enough of a lip to attach the C-Clamp, this model optimizes the vise placement and security.
It’s all about the jaws
All Dyna-King jaws are the best at holding hook sizes #24 – 8/0 securely
All of the adjustments and components on the Excalibur are what make it the cream of the crop of vises, but if it’s a bit out of budget check out the rest of the Dyna-King lineup.
The jaws are the single most important part of the vise. The Trekker and the Barracuda Deluxe both utilize the same jaws that the Excalibur does. These jaws lock down on hooks with zero slippage, and they are super easy to adjust to hook size.
