Anvil is a company well known in tying circles for their line of good quality, reasonably priced tying tools. After Anvil's first, not very successful, modular vise, they have now bounced back with the Apex, a traditional, compact draw-collet design.

First impressions of the vise were quite favorable. At an MSRP of about $120, the vise fills the price gap between the least-expensive vises, and the low end of the high quality manufacturers. The vise has a matte silver finish, and an appearance of high quality. Included in the price are both a pedestal base and C-clamp. My first impressions did not, however, fully survive the bench test.

The vise's standrod is 6" long, and is offered for use with both pedestal and C-clamp. A longer standrod for C-clamp use would be a worthy addition. The C-clamp gap is 1 7/8", and has no interior padding. The pedestal base is small and light, with a footprint of 5" x 3 ½", and is finished with a marbled silver paint, and a cork pad. The sample had a "Made in India" sticker on the pedestal base. The Anvil web site states "Apex - Made in the USA".

The vise head rotates through 360 degrees, or the rotary function can be locked out with a plastic thumbscrew located on the vise's housing. When "locked," the head continues to rotate through about 5 degrees. Head angle is adjustable with an included Allen key.

Adjustment of the vise for varying hook wire diameters is accomplished with a machined knurled knob at the rear of the vise, and the knob is large enough to make the adjustment comfortable.

The jaws are conical, and come to a relatively acute point. As a result, small-hook access is very good, and lock-up on small hooks is secure. Large hooks are accommodated by two straight cut hook pockets. The vise came with no instructions, so I cannot say whether the jaws can be replaced, or changed. How the jaws can be removed is not obvious by inspection of the vise, and they appear to be attached directly to the cam lever with a pressure- fitted pin.

When trying to secure either a 4/0 saltwater hook, or a size 2 long shank streamer hook, the force required to obtain a good lock-up was also enough to cause the vise head to tilt, regardless of how tightly I tried to lock the head angle adjustment. The stainless to stainless junction provides insufficient friction. After some fiddling, however, I was able to obtain fair security with both of these big hooks.

While finish appears good, fit and machining is only fair. The vise head wobbles inside its housing, and the standrod clamp on the pedestal base is especially crude.

For those looking to "upgrade" from a first tying- kit vise to a better draw-collet tool, this vise has features worth consideration. The inclusion of both pedestal base and C-clamp in the package, together with a rotating head, and jaws which provide very good access to small hooks, are pluses. For the same price, however, the Regal Inex has better-built quality in a non-rotary head vise. My suggestion would be to save a little longer, and go for the HMH Spartan, or DynaKing Squire.