Saw vise wood or metal

[Richard Hutchings]

I just came across a metal vise for $35. Before I buy that I wonder what your opinions of home made ones are. My preference is to build my own tools when possible but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot.

[mike stenson]

For my money, it depends. Yea, I know.. lame answer.

I've had a cast iron Disston that I was given. Unfortunately, the thing was worn too much to clamp a saw properly so it was a waste. I made a wooden one, that worked much better until I clamped too hard and broke it. Now I have a steel one from gramercy, which really is my favorite to date... but...

So, if it's in good condition I'd take the metal one ;)

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I just came across a metal vise for $35. Before I buy that I wonder what your opinions of home made ones are. My preference is to build my own tools when possible but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot.

I am mostly posting to subscribe to see any responses.

I planned on building one from wood and I had at least one metal vise that I gave to a friend. I ended up purchasing the Gramacy Saw vise because I liked how easy it would be for me to clamp and release a saw as well as to mount it on something that was easy to then mount to my bench.

https://toolsforworkingwood.com/store/item/GT-SAWV

A bit pricey but I like how it works. One woodworker said that his would vibrate near the middle because it was not clamping down well enough. I have not seen this on mine and have only seen one person complain.

[Thomas Wilson]

I have the Gramercy vise. I have to confess I’ve not sharpened a saw on it. I can tell you that the jaws are like a spring joint that come together at the tips first then over the full length as the vise is tightened. The result is more uniform pressure along the full length of the jaws. It would be hard to get the same full length tension with jaws that are thin enough to be out of the way when filing if you made it out of wood.

[Jim Koepke]

My first saw vise was made from wood. My next few were old metal saw vises of various degrees of worn out.

Now my saw vise is a Gramercy saw vise. The vise is appreciated more than the money spent on it.


I just came across a metal vise for $35.

If it isn't in great condition, it may be $35 wasted on a pile of rust.

jtk

[mike stenson]

Now my saw vise is a Gramercy saw vise. The vise is appreciated more than the money spent on it.


The very first thing I did with the Gramercy was retooth a saw. By the time I was done forming the teeth, let alone getting to sharpening, every cent I spent on that vise was forgotten.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

If you decide to make your own from wood, my favorite was done in an article on the Lee Valley web site. I would provide a link, but, it seems to no longer exist. I heard a rumor that it was archived someplace on wood central, but I won't bother looking for it right now. If you really want to see the article, send me a PM with an email address where I can send you an ODT file; I can turn it into a PDF if you want as well.

The norsewoodsmith has an article about Jaspers wooden saw vise, which I had planned on building before I decided that I preferred the one in the Lee Valley article. Yes, I have that as a PDF.

My least favorite (that I was thinking about building) was from an article by Robert W. Lang called "Shop-made Saw Vise" from Popular Woodworking Magazine June 2010, and they had the PDF on their web site (and yes, I downloaded that at the time).

If I was to think about the Norse saw vise, I would google

Shop Built Saw Vise By Dominic Greco

He has an article with one that he build in 2009.

[Richard Hutchings]

Well there's no way I'm spending that kind of money. I'll give the $35 dollar one a try before I buy. If it isn't up to par then I'll build my own. I only have 4 saws that need sharpening and I'll probably get a couple years out of each sharpening at my rate of work.

Thanx for your input, it really helped to know that most of the antiques are crap.

[Mike Brady]

I copied mine from the ones that Lie-Nielsen uses when filing their saws, It is 3/4" baltic birch and has a leather hinge along the bottom of the clamshell. It is very good for lessening the screech from a dull file. I only have to reclamp the full length saws once per side. The advantage I have is that I have a 24" twin-screw vise to hold the saw vice.

I tried several vintage vises including the Disston D-4, but the saw vice in my twinscrew was much more secure and I can sit while I file, with the teeth about at chest height.

The weakness with vintage vises are the poor design they have for mounting to a bench. Never tried the Grammercy, but on my bench, the mounting would have been awkward.

[Sanford Imhoff]

I purchased this kit from Texas Heritage Woodworks and built my own. Very pleased with the results.

https://www.txheritage.net/sawvise

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[steven c newman]

I have a Wentworth No. 1.....am quite happy with it, the few times I've needed to use it (Rip saws, mainly)

There is a tip from long ago, though. You can add a length of rubber air hose to the jaws. Not only cushions the grip, but also improves it. It will also cancel out any vibrations...

Either 1/4" ID or 3/8" ID rubber hose, make a slit along it's length, a slide onto the jaws of the metal saw vise..do both jaws.

Seem to recall the old saw vises had a rubber strip on their jaws, either have been worn away, or just tossed...

[Jerome Andrieux]

I prefer my home made version (wooden sticks in a metal vise) because I don’t sharpen or file metal at my woodworking bench. I don’t like how metal dust rusts and blackens everything it touches. I wouldn’t know where to attach a metal vise such as the gramercy mentioned here in my shop.

[Don Coffman]

I built mine after looking at many photos. Most of it is made of black walnut & white oak scraps. It was sorta build as you go trial & error, it works that was the result I wanted.

[mike stenson]

Attachment need not be permanent, it's really easy to make a fixture you can clamp to a work surface that holds the vise. My vise hangs from a beam most of the time, takes seconds to put on the bench.

[ken hatch]

Attachment need not be permanent, it's really easy to make a fixture you can clamp to a work surface that holds the vise. My vise hangs from a beam most of the time, takes seconds to put on the bench.


Same here except it is on the shelf under the bench. I'll just add to what many others have posted: In a week or two you will never miss the money spent on the TFWW saw vise, most of the other options will be a PITA for as long as you use them and then you are likely to spend the money for the TFWW vise anyway.

ken

[Andrew Pitonyak]

The weakness with vintage vises are the poor design they have for mounting to a bench. Never tried the Grammercy, but on my bench, the mounting would have been awkward.

First, we look at my vice. The vice has certain issues, you can see the center "screw" bar and the two alignment bars on the side.

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I attached my saw vise to a piece of oak but in such a way that the base sits on the three bars and the sides go around it. I could have done it slightly differently, but here it is hanging on my wall.

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The result is that it sets the saw at a nice height and it is very easy and fast to drop it into one of my bench vises. It could also fit into my Moxon vise. Given the design, I think that this was easier to mount to my bench than the old metal vise that I had. If I had built the wooden vise as I had planned, I probably would have designed the base to be somewhat similar so that it would be easy for me to mount. Keep that in mind if you choose to build or buy one; how will you mount it?

[Andrew Pitonyak]

It looks like it uses a wooden cantilever; I like it!

[steven c newman]

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2x 8 added to the Wentworth No. 1......then the end vise can hold the vise in place....before I set it back on a shelf..
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And a file holder...
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What it looked like, once it came home from the Antique Mall ( got it at 1/2 price, too..)

[mike stenson]

Two holdfasts and done. Don't even need to use the face vise, or moxon. Oh and yep, it's a wentworth clone.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-KDpR98F/0/eb214e83/M/i-KDpR98F-M.jpg

[Tom M King]

Nobody seems to know what it is, including Lee from the Best Things, who sold it to me. I used a Stearns (the relatively little one in the picture) for a few decades, which worked fine, but this one only requires one movement of a handsaw. Mass is a good thing for saw vises.

[steven c newman]

Maybe look up ACME saw vise?

[Mel Fulks]

I stumbled into a good deal on a wide saw vise years ago. Showed it to a buddy who was in sharpening biz, he went nuts
over it so I traded him even. I've yet to sharpen a saw.

[Jim Koepke]

Finally remembered to take a picture of my saw vise today:

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The mount was made from some scrap 2X8 construction lumber.

jtk