Getting Schwarzed

A small batch of rosewood knobs in production for tail vises.

A few weeks ago we got Schwarzed. What is "getting Schwarzed"? It's when Popular Woodworking and Woodworking Magazine editor Christopher Schwarz decides to blog about a recent tool he's picked up, without of course notifying the manufacturer of that tool. In this case, it was a multiple whammy. The Benchcrafted Tail Vise went on sale last month on Black Friday, and Chris decided to blog about the sale (again, unbeknownst to us!). We got swamped with orders, and sold out of our existing stock within a few hours. Then within the space of a couple weeks Chris blogged about installing his own Benchcrafted Tail Vise in his Roubo bench no less than four times. Thanks Mr. Schwarz. And I don't mean that with any hint of sarcasm. Well, not entirely! :-) Since then we've been scrambling to get parts and materials ordered and delivered (that's a task in itself during the holidays and the nasty midwest weather this time of year) the steel milled and fabricated, the hardware assembled and the rosewood knobs turned. Our usual turnaround time for vises is 2-3 weeks. With the sale, the huge response from Chris' blog and the other delays that are common this time of year, amazingly we're only a couple weeks behind that goal. If things go as planned (do they ever?!) another batch of vises should be heading to those first Black Friday purchasers by the end of the week. In this case, the early bird gets the vise.

In case you missed Chris' review of the vise, check out his blog post. We couldn't be more pleased with his review.

We recently uploaded another glowing review of the tail vise from infill plane maker Ron Brese. You can read it here.

In addition, we've also uploaded a newly edited video to the vise page showcasing the function of the vise. Direct download here.

Another Olivewood, er.....Spalted Maple Custom BLOK

Well we've yet to get our hands on any large pieces of olivewood. That said, we're not terribly dispointed in the spalted maple we've laid our hands on! This is just one of 2 custom jobs we've done lately (32" x 3"). We love this stuff. Just imagine your set of fine Japanese steel on this.

Maybe there's more to come.............in smaller sizes?

Woodworking Magazine and the Tail Vise

The Benchcrafted Tail Vise was recently featured on the Woodworking Magazine Weblog. Magazine Editor Christopher Schwarz installed one the vises in his Roubo-style bench. You can read about his experience and thoughts here: Woodworking Magazine Weblog.

We're proud that Mr. Schwarz, who is responsible for much of the recent interest in traditional workbench design and use, has chosen the Benchcrafted Tail Vise for his bench. We're excited about offering this vise in the coming months and years, and even improving on its design. We think it fills the niche between traditional tail vises, and wagon vises made from bench screws and other hardware not necessarily intended for wagon vises.

Thanks Mr. Schwarz and Woodworking Magazine!