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Homemade Tying Vise

For many, the art of fly-fishing expands into the often obsessive pursuit of tying your own flies. Besides, saving a few dollars at the fly-shop, there's something especially rewarding about catching a trout on a fly you've tied yourself. Fly-tying vises can be on the expensive side -- a delicate vise costing well more than a rugged shop vice. There are some viable homemade approaches.

Repurposing a Vise-Grips
- Many know of Vise-Grip brand locking pliers as the go-to tool when you don't care about marring a nut or bolt. They're not delicate. They're not pretty. But they're strong. They lack precision for tying flies, but you can customize Vise-Grips by filing the jaws to suit your type of tying -- evening up the jaw edges for light-wire dry flies or smoothing the teeth so they don't abrade the hooks anti-corrosive coating. The biggest challenge is making a handle. You can fabricate something from hardwood, then drill a hole in the Vise-Grip's handle and bolt it to your wood base.
Forceps
- Fly-fisherman often have at least one pair or forceps around for delicately removing hooks. It has occurred to more than a couple of fisherman that forceps are the closest thing they have to an in-the-field vise for tying a pattern the fish like, that's not currently in the fly-box. The problem is, forceps don't produce that much force so the hook tends to spin in the jaws of the forceps. If you apply too much pressure, you'll brake the forceps. You can notch the forceps with a contour, allowing the hook to sit in to keep it from spinning.
Custom Rotary Vises
- Not all homemade vises are homemade to save money. Some are made in attempt to create the perfect vise. Examples are often rotary vises -- vises that spin -- which generally require some machining skills and equipment. The idea is, to create a vise that will rotate to optimize your work angle. Some even spin continuously, wrapping thread and materials onto the spinning hook and vise, rather than wrapping thread around a stationary hook. Examples have been made from old sewing machines.
Wire and Tube Designs
- Wire and tube designs take a whole new approach to securing a fly hook. Instead of using the tension of two vice-jaws, a wire pulls the shank, back towards a tube. the wire is connected to a threaded mechanism. It could be actuated by a wingnut or anything easy to tighten with your fingers. A little time in an old workshop will probably turn up some tubing, wire of some sort and threaded hardware to hold a hook in place with this method.

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