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I was first introduced to the Danvise by the owner of “fine flies for fisherman” – an old school fly shop located  in Kamloops British Columbia. Graham and his wife ran the entire shop themselves and Graham pumped out the majority of the countless flies that they sold on the Danvise! So, when Graham suggested that this was the tying vice that I should buy I was already sold on it … but when he told me that I would only have to pay $75.00 for it I literally couldn’t  get the cash out of my pocket fast enough! That must have been 10 years ago and to this day I still regularly use the vise for all my fly tying needs!

The Danvise is a true inline rotary action fly tying vise. It is manufactured in Denmark and constructed of, for the most part, Delrin – a very tough space age nylon used in factory conveyor belts. The jaws are made of top-quality, tempered steel and the whole thing comes with a bobbin rest/wire holder, a material clip, a C-clamp to mount it to your working surface and a reversing block for “left hand” tiers.  And, if you purchase it from Al Beatty at DV Central, you’ll also get a short instructional DVD to get you pointed in the right direction!

The Details:

The mounting system consists of a quality, well designed C clamp which provides a solid, immobile hold that remains tight even through long tying sessions. The clamp comes with protective pads that eliminate any marks or damage to the mounting surface.

The vice stem is sturdy and provides for smooth height adjustment.

The rotational system utilized by this vise is second to none! Rotation is smooth and the tension of the rotation is fully adjustable from rock solid to almost frictionless.

The bobbin cradle is very handy and versatile (you can use it as a parachute tool, as well) but lacks enough tension to make it stay put. To compensate for this little problem simply turn over the unit on the vise stem and then tighten the nut/bolts while in the lower position … now all of the nut/bolts parts will tighten even further (not loosen as before) as the arm is raised into position!

We’ve saved the jaws for last as although the are probably the Danvise’s greatest strength, if not operated correctly they are also its greatest weakness!

The Jaws of the Danvise operate smoothly, are easy to open and close and are easily adjustable for a wide range of hook sizes. Once set, the jaws will remain in the set position for as many flies of that size that you wish to tie – they won’t come out of calibration unless manually reset by the user. The jaws camming system exerts a force of 10 – 1 on the hook it’s holding – talk about rock solid. The problem, however, is that if careful adjustment is not made for each size hook you will (and trust me cause I have) prematurely wear out or damage the jaw tips. It doesn’t have to be that way though … remember that instructional video that I told you Mr. Beaty includes with the vise? Watch it – especially the section on how to install the hook in the vise! And if you’re like me and don’t follow instructions very well … no problem, I’m sure Al will help you out – my replacement jaws were shipped out to me the very next business day after they received my email order!

More on the Jaws from Al Beatty himself:

“The jaws have been a problem and are also the positive point regarding the vise. The designer (a fly tier) really hated hooks slipping in a vise so he designed the jaws/cam lever to apply a 10 to 1 closing ratio during the hook mounting process; most other cam operated vices have a closing ration of 2.5 (or 3) to 1. The Danvise really holds a hook VERY well but for those people who don’t adjust the jaws properly they will damage either a hook, the jaws or both. We include a “set-up & how-to-adjust” DVD with all the vises we sell. It really is amazing how little pressure a tier will feel on the cam-lever handle when closing the jaws and they are adjusted to hold a hook properly. For those tiers who did not receive the DVD (customers other than ours) we’ve hyper linked a You-Tube video at DV Central (on the right hand side of the home page). We also has other feature like parts list, etc.”

The Verdict:

Is the Danvise perfect? Absolutely not. Is it the best fly tying vise that money can buy? Nope again. Is it the best rotary fly tying vise you can buy for under a hundred bucks? Well … in our opinion it’s probably the best fly tying vise you can buy for under two hundred bucks! The Danvise gives you many of the great features and quality found on the much higher priced vises at a very reasonable price. It’s very easy to set up, holds a hook better than the best of them and just plain works! It is very easy for us to recommend this vise and we’re sure you’ll be as happy with it as we are! To order yours visit Al at DV Central today!

*You can check out the Danvise in action by viewing any of the fly tying videos on our YouTube page!

Tags: Al Beatty, Danvise, Danvise Central, Fly Tying, fly tying tools, Fly Tying Vise

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011 at 6:45 am and is filed under Product Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.