A South African Success Story

A man who ties thousands of flies each year, HANS VAN KLINKEN knows a good vice when he sees it. He tells the story of how South African Jay Smit’s JVice became one of his most prized possessions.

Let me clear up something first. For many non-English-speaking people the word vice or vise always confuses us. My English is far from perfect so I get help from computer software. As all my spell checkers are set to British English, I use the spelling as “vice”. In America the word for a clamping tool comprising two jaws that can be opened and closed by a screw or lever is spelt as “vise”. But outside America the vise spelling rarely appears. The word vice, however, also has six other meanings according to the Collins English Dictionary, so the English language can get quite confusing.

BACKGROUND AND PROGRESSION

There are many good vices on the market today and competition is fierce. Please don’t misunderstand me, I am not a vice junkie or a vice collector, I’ve just owned several vices over more than 40 years of fly-tying. I’ve also been quite privileged to tie on many other vices which weren’t mine – some were awesome and some I didn’t like at all, but what I learnt was that you don’t need the most expensive vice to make fly-tying a pleasure. A few of the less expensive vices perform quite well too. I also learnt that the vice used by a particular fly-tyer won’t necessarily be the perfect one for you.