Stew-Mac Nut and Saddle Vise

If you have read much on my blog, you know I have a fair amount of Stew-Mac tools.  Now, they're great, but one of the complaints about them is that sometimes their tools are a bit pricey.  And sometimes you look at it in the catalog and think "that's nice, but do I really need that?"

Such is the case with their small Nut and Saddle Vise.  I make a fair amount of nuts and saddles for guitars.  For a long time, I eyed this device up in their catalog and thought, how much better can it be than the regular vise I currently use?

But after hassling with the last nut I made (for the Jazzmaster), which was very short and tricky to handle, I realized that it might be good to have one of the Stew-Mac vises after all.  They tout the fact that the jaws are shaped so you can get a good angle on your work.  I took the plunge.

So here it is!

I've only just taken it out of the box and I'm already glad I got it.  And just as they say, the jaws are narrow and tapered so you can get a sharp angle on your work.  So that's a great thing for saddles.

It's pretty decently made too.

You could put it right on your bench - or - clamp it in a bigger vise!  That's pretty cool.

I can see that I'll use this thing a lot.

The best part of this is that it's fairly inexpensive - $36 US (about 26 Euro, 237 Swedish Crowns, or 22 British Pounds).

And here's how steep of and angle you can get on a saddle blank.  How great is that?

And again, it would be good for all kinds of small parts - for model or toy making even.

Merry Christmas to me!