Matthew Groves wrote: "I use a few ball joint model. Never seemed to lack
rigidity. I do like being able to swivel. Sometimes to catch the window light
just right on the teeth. Sometimes to put the file motion in better line with my
arms motion. But most of all so I can file from the other side without
unclamping."

Interesting. I find with filing in general that it is easier to keep the file
flat and level, rather than maintaining it at a compound angle to the workpiece
and the ground. So my notion was that with a ball-joint vise I could set it so
that the angle to my file is correct when the top of the file is parallel to the
ground. Then I could move the saw in the vise without changing the angle I file
at. No need of little skeletal angle guides, no need to remember a complex
compound angle and then mirror-image it. I'm looking seriously at the price
range on these; they seem pretty common, though the shape they are in is
apparently a big issue. Hard to tell from a photo.


Tom Conroy
Berkeley