Jonn Graham Posted January 31, 2013 Report Share Posted January 31, 2013 After a few years of hard-core tying (flies and swim jigs), my old Griffin is just worn out. Plus, it was time to get a vise that was cam operated. Kinda getting tired of turning a knob to tighten the jaws. I will probably keep my Griffin and possibly use it with swim jigs. But, when it comes to tying flies, my new Peak vise is simply outstanding: This vise is quite a value - true rotary and comes with a bobbin holder (not seen in the pics). Very heavy base and all the trimmings. Totally made in America for $150. I went ahead and bought the trash bin that neatly attaches to the stem of the vise. It is now time to train myself to stop lettting my trimmings fall onto the floor. I purchased this vise from Brad Miller at www.flybass.com. Brad is registered on the site and is known for his blockhead popper bodies. Brad has an e-commerce site at www.flybass.biz. Check it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted January 31, 2013 Report Share Posted January 31, 2013 John, I had a chance to play with a Peak vise over at Indy a couple of weeks ago when we met with the INSA fly guys and I must say that I was quite impressed. It was obviously very well made and well thought out. It seems to me to be the best value in a true rotary vise for around $150 and it has always received great reviews. Also those guys in Denver supposedly stand behind their product extremely well with great customer service should you need it. I'm envious. Enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted January 31, 2013 Report Share Posted January 31, 2013 Congrat's Jonn. It looks great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike G Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 'Bout time. If the time you spent shopping a new vice had been a pregnancy, you would have had an elephant. But congrats on the new baby. Now that you have joined the brotherhood of "True Rotary" you can learn to do rotary tying. Check out Al and Gretchen Beatty's book-Rotary Tying Techniques. http://www.btsflyfishing.com/ Like you, I bought a rotary vice to upgrade to cam operated jaws; but then via this book I found out that a true rotary opened up a whole new bag of tricks for for things like wrapping materials, spinning deer hair, and whip finishing-just to name a few processes. It is not just for looking at the other side of the fly. (BTW the book has a chapter on the Peak that confirms your high opinion of it.) Good choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikea Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 I ditched my 15yr old Renzetti last spring for a Peak after I looked over Joe Cornwalls review http://www.flyfishohio.com/Vise%20Review%201/Fly_Tying_Vise_Shoot-Out.htm Your gonna love that vice John, things built like a tank compared to my traveler,enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rich mc Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 i hope to be joining you soon with a new one. my renzetti traveler was bought used about 6 years ago. and that screw knob is driving me nuts like it did you. is it good with 1/0 bass hooks? rich mc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom L Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 Congrats Jonn. Glade you posted it. These discussions will benefit many. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonn Graham Posted February 1, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 Rich: I am tying Muskie flies with it. I have got the vise to hold up to a 4/0 hook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike G Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 I ditched my 15yr old Renzetti last spring for a Peak after I looked over Joe Cornwalls review http://www.flyfishohio.com/Vise%20Review%201/Fly_Tying_Vise_Shoot-Out.htm Your gonna love that vice John, things built like a tank compared to my traveler,enjoy. Mike, you have done us all a great service by referencing that article. The only limitation it has is that it only covers vises that cost $150 or less. Most of us already have that limit anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike G Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 i hope to be joining you soon with a new one. my renzetti traveler was bought used about 6 years ago. and that screw knob is driving me nuts like it did you. is it good with 1/0 bass hooks? rich mc Yoda, Like this you will. I am sure the Peak can handle all your needs, but there are other choices in the price range. Here's my Danvise holding a 5/0 Siwash hook. There's more. It is a transformer. Here it is in the Midge mode holding a #18 hook. For your Musky flies there is an extension arm. That's a 5 inch streamer. For your next trip to the dark side the Clouser mode looks like a Stormtrouper's sidearm. Comes with a C-clamp, bases are available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikea Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 I put up to a 4/0 in it Rich, she's really solid. The Traveler can have the jaws updated to take a larger hook but the frame and tightening mechanism are still to flimsy for the larger bugs most of us tie. i hope to be joining you soon with a new one. my renzetti traveler was bought used about 6 years ago. and that screw knob is driving me nuts like it did you. is it good with 1/0 bass hooks? rich mc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike G Posted February 2, 2013 Report Share Posted February 2, 2013 i hope to be joining you soon with a new one. my renzetti traveler was bought used about 6 years ago. and that screw knob is driving me nuts like it did you. is it good with 1/0 bass hooks? rich mc A thought, Yoda. Screwing you like not? Buy a set of cam jaws for your travler you can. $76 it costs. http://www.renzetti.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=61&category_id=29&keyword=cam+jaws&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=217 Honor you will have; money you will save. Beat the pants of of stinking Peaks and Danvises it will. Your Jedi Aprentice PS Travler bent shaft order you can. http://www.renzetti.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=226&category_id=52&keyword=rotary+shaft&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=217 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted October 1, 2013 Report Share Posted October 1, 2013 Well if you liked the Peak Vise at 149 clams, you should love it at 125 smackers right now at J Stockard. http://www.jsflyfishing.com/cgi-bin/item/OF-903300-0000/85300/Peak-Fishing-PEAK-Rotary-Vise.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike G Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Well if you liked the Peak Vise at 149 clams, you should love it at 125 smackers right now at J Stockard. http://www.jsflyfishing.com/cgi-bin/item/OF-903300-0000/85300/Peak-Fishing-PEAK-Rotary-Vise.html Well it is not that simple. You pay 150 for the vise and they give you a coupon for $25 in their merchandise. Or you pay $150 for $175 worth of stuff. that's about a 14% discount. Their Danvise sale is better. With a 20% discount you pay $80 instead of the 100 msrp, or $45 less than the 125 for the Peak. http://www.jsflyfishing.com/cgi-bin/item/OF-900805-0000/80100/Danica-Danvise.html I know the Danvise is solid. But I do not have any experience with the Peak. Does anyone? Fly Fish Ohio gave both great reviews in their shoot out on "working man's vises.". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonn Graham Posted October 2, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 The Peak vise is OUTSTANDING!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Mike, I don't own the Peak Vise but I played around with it over at Flymasters in Indy a while back and was very impressed. American made, high quality materials used, nice base and plenty of accessories. And seeing how they must have some contractual agreement with all distributors to sell for no less than $149, and the fact that I can always find $25 of stuff at J. Stockard for either fly tying or rod building, it's a nice deal. I hear nothing but good things about the Danvise but I just can't get excited about a plastic vise that IMO is less than aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I see a well made vise as a once in lifetime purchase so get what you really want since it will be staring back at you for years. Edit: and now that I see Mike G. has a Danvise himself, did I mention what a great value and beautiful piece of artwork it truly is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike G Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Rob, Thank you. My beautiful high functioning Danvise is made of Derlin not plastic. "Polyoxymethylene (POM), also known as acetal,%5B1%5Dpolyacetal and polyformaldehyde, is an engineering thermoplastic used in precision parts requiring high stiffness, low friction and excellent dimensional stability. As with many other synthetic polymers, it is produced by different chemical firms with slightly different formulas and sold variously by such names as Delrin, Celcon, Duracon and Hostaform." A critical part of the Peak is also made of Derlin. That is the tension screw on the coulet that controls the ease of rotation for the main shaft. No wonder Peaks are so good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike G Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 But there's more. If 20% off on a Danvise is good, 31% is even better. $69.00 from the prestigious Orvis Company. http://www.orvis.com/store/product.aspx?pf_id=527e http://www.orvis.com/store/product.aspx?pf_id=527e Get yours now. At this price supplies will not last forever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted October 3, 2013 Report Share Posted October 3, 2013 Mike, according to Peak Vise, the most commonly purchased accessory to their vise is..... you guessed it, a brass screw to replace the Derlin one. Honestly though, if one only has $70 and seeks a true rotary vise, you can't do better than the Danvise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike G Posted October 3, 2013 Report Share Posted October 3, 2013 Rob, The OEM part is still Derlin-a 21st century material. I am sure you still have customers who insist on glass lenses. I still have my dad's 50s vintage Ray Bans. But never wear them. Being from Northrop my favorite "plastic" plane is the B-2. The aircraft industry uses a lot of composites these days. That may be why I did not give a second thought to the use of Derlin in the Danvise. If plastic wigs you out, beware of the 787 because the tail assembly is "plastic." We don't have to go any further than the rod rack to see some dandy plastic rods, aka, graphite composite rods. It has been ages since I have seen a rod made of metal. For most of my spinning reels I have extra spools made of composite material. I switch from the aluminum spools to the composite ones without noticing any drop in performance. I see the newest casting reels are made with composite frames. Peak is primarily an engineering outfit. So I can see why they stick with the Derlin screw even though the marketing guys want to change the specs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted October 3, 2013 Report Share Posted October 3, 2013 Mike, point well taken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colt Johnson Posted October 3, 2013 Report Share Posted October 3, 2013 I've used a Peak vise for about two years now. I love it. It does everything I need and it looks as if it were still brand new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike G Posted October 6, 2013 Report Share Posted October 6, 2013 Oh yeah, Rob. This discussion made me remember when glass lenses were standard on glasses. We paid extra to upgrade to the lighter plastic lenses. Now that plastic is standard, the Carlin question, why do we still call them glasses? It also reminds me of a question that you might be able to answer. The earliest glasses I wore, could break if I dropped them. Some time in the 50s or 60s regulations were passes requiring tempered lenses in eyeglasses for safety. My problems with broken glasses ended there. Except I still have my father's vintage Ray-Ban Aviators from around 1950. Is there a way to tell if they are tempered? For safety sake I assume that they are not and will pass them on to the kids with that caution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted October 6, 2013 Report Share Posted October 6, 2013 Mike, you're correct, in our office maybe 2% of lenses are actually made out of glass if that. Yes, way back there it became law that glass spectacle lenses were required to pass a "drop ball test". To achieve that, glass lenses had to be heat treated or chemically treated to withstand the impact without breaking. After they were heat treated, we would put them under a polarizing meter and you could see an optical cross appear to let us know if the process was successful. If it wasn't successful they normally came out of the oven cracked anyway. Chemically treated lenses were the better way to go but that was more expensive since it had to be sent out to another lab and of course that meant we could no longer offer 2 hour service so heat treating them was the standard practice. Hence chemical treatment was saved for mostly safety glasses. The problem with treated glass lenses, is they still can shatter into very fine fragments which is more devastating to the eye than if the lens breaks into much larger pieces as is the case of plastic lenses. Unfortunately today there are too many lawyers out there and so we not only use plastic for these reasons but have bumped it up a notch with polycarbonate lenses that are very difficult to break at all. The problem is polycarbonate is rather soft and so it scratches easily and has to have a harder scratch resistant coating. Notice I said scratch resistant and not scratch proof as there is no such thing. Glass lenses have better scratch resistance even today than almost any coating. But see rule No. 1 above about there being too many lawyers. Ha When I lived practiced in Champaign, it was interesting that so many Asian students at the U of I would show up here in the states with lenses made out of glass and cut exceptionally thin. The optics were clean, they wouldn't scratch easily, the edges would be very thin and cosmetically appealing and they weighed very little compared to our lenses. Of course the difference was that they had no ANSI standards to deal with and the lenses wouldn't come close to passing any of our controls. When they would see what their eyeglasses would look like if we made them here, they would often scoff at the thicker lens edges and take their scripts back to Asia to have them filled And now that I've bored you to tears, it's back to the vise or in my case, vice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredmo Posted October 30, 2013 Report Share Posted October 30, 2013 I resent the resentment of lawyers (or attorneys) who require safety in the industry. If you can make it safe, why not do it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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