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Vices & Work Holding

Does Your Workbench Need A Vice?

Of the many types of woodworking vice that are available, few are more suited to the hand tool user than the traditional variants.

For the face vice give some thought to a leg vice, or the horizontal variant that’s often seen on English style benches.

Much of the work held down to the bench top was traditionally held without a tail vice though.
Alternatives such as working against a planing stop, &/ or using a holdfast are generally far more efficient and encourage better techniques with your hand planes.

Below you’ll find all of our posts detailing traditional vices, along with some of the traditional vice-less working methods that I use in my work.

Round Dogs or Square?

Round Dogs or Square?

Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter. Both round and square bench dogs will hold effectively. After a short time of working with both shapes though I must say that I soon came to favour the round ones. Many, many bench builds later and that opinion still stands. As...

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Get A Grip!

Get A Grip!

If you’re building a workbench then you’ll likely spend a lot of time pondering over which vices are going to suit you the best. There’s a lot of choice out there so it can be a big headache but whatever you opt for there’s one step that I definitely recommend you...

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25% off all series throughout December!

 Use code  XMAS2023  at checkout.

Browse the projects here.

Related Posts:

Face Vice Rack – How To Work With It

Can't be Bothered to Read? Click Play: https://www.theenglishwoodworker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Nice-Rack.mp3 Without a reliable way to hold your work for woodworking we'll quickly become frustrated. Whilst I'm a firm believer that a lot can be achieved with an...

Drawer and Carcase Holding

A planing sleeve is a work holding method for things such as assembled drawers and open carcases, so you can plane or work on the outside faces. These are enormously handy when the carcase is too big for your vice, and knocking one up is as easy as fixing a couple of...

Arnold and The Bench Knife

Today I wanted to share another work holding method that's as simple as it is effective (the best ones always are) and is suited only to those who've broken the fear of scathing their bench. 'The Bench Knife' is an old method certainly used...

Learn in depth in the video series: