> -----Original Message-----
> From: oldtools-bounces@r... 
> [mailto:oldtools-bounces@r...] On Behalf Of 
> Robert Weber

> I guess that I cannot see the advantages of a standard face 
> (or worse yet, metal like a Record) vise over a shoulder 
> vise. It would appear to have limited depth, and be terribly 
> subject to racking without various offsetting gymnastics. By 
> contrast, there is no racking with a shoulder vise and you 
> can clamp anywhere behind the screw.

Face vise is great for holding a board on edge for jointing.  You can just
drop the board in the vise so that it extends all the way across the width
of the jaws - in fact, it can hang out both ends - then just tighten it
down.  Very fast for doing certain operations.  Also good where you want to
allow the end of the board to hang out beyond the end of the bench - like
for cutting off the end of the board, or for using a spokeshave or drawknife
(since I haven't yet gotten back to work on the shaving horse that I got
kind of a half-start on over a year ago).  A shoulder vise will hold only so
much of the end of the board, with the rest of it hanging off way out there
so that you need a board jack to hold the other end.  Of course, for any
board long enough, you'd need a board jack for a face vise as well.

But yes, you're right - a shoulder vise does have some advantages over a
face vise.  I do really like Paul Pederson's solution - very clever - but
also a very complicated project.

> It occurs to me that you gain the advantage of clamping boards flat
between dogs in the top of the vise, but isn't that handled 
> just as well by either an end vise or a well placed holdfast?

Sometimes a holdfast can get in the way of what you're trying to do - like
planing the face of a board - but again, yeah, that's what the end vise is
for (which often is just another face vise stuck on the end of the bench).

- Bill T.

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