hmh trv review

[vicente 0]

Mark you could always turn out a very limited number of vises, made with your own pattern welded steel and slap a very high price tag on them even if you hit only a very select market it could be worth while.

[Mark Knapp 0]

vicente, see, now you've found my weakness. That sounds like the coolest idea ever.

 

That's what I need, some more interesting stuff to occupy my time. I have a five year backlog on custom knife orders, as it is.

[vicente 0]

Haha they are cool one of the members here has some very fancy vises, he has a pattern welded one, though I'm sure with your background you could top it in beauty. It's a shame we didn't meet 5 years ago I before I had kids I'd have swapped a couple weeks of hand sanding for some lessons and a couple days of fishing in a heart beat.

[Mark Knapp 0]

vicente, I get offers like that quite a bit. I have four apprentices right now. You'd think my shop would be cleaner than it is.

[vicente 0]

Haha it should be sparkling, I'm about half way through cleaning mine, I have to work in the same 2 car garage space that i keep all my construction tools, chainsaws etc in so there's a bit of a space issue not really enough room for everything to have a dedicated spot, except right on my bench for the grinder, drill press and buffer.

[johnnyquahog 0]

I see that the Bears Den now has this vise in their catalog. They refer to it as the TVR Spartan in the description. It does have that "buy me" look to it.

[Bazzer69 0]

Im at a loss to understand why someone would buy a perfectly good vise ie the TRV and then set about modificating it to spin like a Norvise, why not buy a Norvise in the first place? They are great rotary vises. And for a 150-200$ more you could buy a improved LAW vise ie the CAEngineering vise which I recently purchased. It makes the TRV look like a toy in comparison. The only, maybe, downside to it is having to wait a couple of months. I wouldnt part with mine if I were offered a couple of grand for it.

But each to there own I suppose, remember I might be the only member of this forum that has owned both.

Regards

[Mark Knapp 0]

Bazzer, Well, I did explain that, if you read my answer to your first post about my mods (please see my post #109). I wanted to be able to spin dubbing Norvise style on my HMH but I didn't want a Norvise because there's no clearance behind the vise like there is on the HMH. Also, the HMH is 200 bucks less expensive than yours so that made it more attractive to me. I am a machinist, the mods cost me nothing. If I want, the vise can be restored to it's original condition by just pulling a couple of screws.

 

Innovation only occurs by when people mess with stuff, I like to mess with stuff. I have four patents, it's how I make my living.

 

You seem to be troubled by people owning the HMH TRV, why is that? I am happy with mine, you're happy with yours. So lets all just be happy.

[Bazzer69 0]

Mark, Im not unhappy with what you have done, I just dont see the point. Davie McPhail have been tying with a LaW vise for years, if he doesnt see the need to have a spinning vise neither do I. As I wrote, to each his own. But I dont consider the TRV to be value for money. I didnt need the LAW type vise. My Renzetti Master has served me well. Despite the fact that Ive been tying since the sixties, I just had this thing about wanting to tye on a LAW, now Im satisfied with the CAE, I wasnt with the TRV. The jaws where rubbish, the thumb screw was a pain, literally and the base was to small. But other than that to TRV was great! Of course many people have tyed great flies on a old Tomspson. But its a pleasure just looking at the CAE LAW.

Regards

Bazza

[petegray 0]

Hi Barry, No, it's not that I wasn't satisfies with it, I'm asking it to do some things it wasn't designed for. I wanted it to spin like the Norvise. I was just so enamored by the way the Norvise spins dubbing.

 

Why not just buy a Norvise? I don't like the way all that stuff is directly behind the hook, I need room back there for my big hands and tails of flies to lie straight. Especially for very small flies.

 

I think I will have a Norvise/HMH hybrid. I'm sure I would have had to do the same thing with a LAW or your new vise to get the same properties.

 

So far, the jaws my HMH came with work fine for every hook I put in it except the 11/0. That's to be expected, I'm quite sure it wasn't designed for that.

 

Plenty of room with the Norvise Fine Jaws... spins with nice accesss... just sayin'...

[Mark Knapp 0]

Bazzer, How much importance should I place on the way you tie or the way Davie McPhail ties? I think there are many fine fly tiers, but I don't wish to emulate any of them. You tie your way and I tie mine. You don't need one that spins, I like the way mine spins. I like the palm wheel and now, I like my hand wheel. I found the finger bar awkward to use.

 

You are comparing the old version of the HMH to what you now have.

 

I, admittedly, have some country loyalty. I like that my vise was made in the US, putting US workers to work. You also must admit that you are biased.

 

Your vise is $200.00 more expensive than mine, add to that the exorbitant cost of getting things shipped from the UK (higher than any other country that I deal with) I already had all the extras that the CAE comes with and didn't need them. The decision for me was easy.

 

You have a fine vise, I hope you enjoy it. I am enjoying mine for sure. I'm really having a lot of fun tying on it and tinkering with it, making it, what I think, is better.

[Mark Knapp 0]

Pete, that is nice. Thanks for showing it to me.

[Poopdeck 0]

One thing all the reviews leave out is which one ties the nicest flies? I'm guessing it's a tie so suggesting one vise is prettier then the other is amusing me. Winter will be over in no time if this continues. If pretty is the bar then I'm voting for the nor vise but I would never ever spend MY money on any of them. Thankfully we can all choose how we blow our money. What's right for me maybe not so right to the next fellow. God bless America.

 

Mark, if I was a machinist there is no way I would spend a nickel on any vise. I would think building a vise would be a simple task for a machinist. Go for it! Build a vise! And let's see it!

[Mark Knapp 0]

Poop, I'm with you on your whole first paragraph. Kind of with you on your second. There's something to be said for not reinventing the wheel. Everything (almost everything) builds off of what others did before them.

 

I'm spread very thin. My wife scowls at me when I spend too much time talking here with you folks and tinkering with things. Or when I load up the truck for fishing too many times a week. One day is fine, two are allowed but when I go three times a week, I am pushing it ( I push it quit a bit). We are so far behind.

 

 

If my time is worth $100.00 an hour (I don't make $100.00 an hour when I'm making custom knives, more like 20.00, but I earn my company $100.00 an hour when I do company stuff). I have to decide if it's worth it to me to start with a $500.00 vise or build one from scratch. Or, more importantly, do I want to take time off from fishing to stay home and build a vise from scratch, I've already had to cut back my fishing time to try and catch up on work.

 

Bazzer would say I have built a whole new vise.

 

I wish everybody the most fun tying, and fishing.

[Bazzer69 0]

Mark, my vise was about $200 more including shipping to California. Actually Im a dual citizen of the UK and the USA so I dont have any axe to grind. As I wrote previously, each to their own.

Thanks