The Moxon Vice

Shop Class’s version of the Moxon Vise

In 1678, a printer and globe maker named Joesph Moxon began publishing a series of pamphlets that explored the tools and practices of six trades, including the joiner. When assembled, these pamphlets became "The Mechanick Exercises" - the first English language account of the trades.

From this work, a 93-page book “The Art of Joinery,” lives on today. An updated reprint was done in 2008 by Lost Art Press. Now copies of the reproduction are highly sought and rather pricy.

The twin screws vice described in Moxon’s writings 330 years ago are great to have around the shop today. They’re super for holding work, especially for joinery, gripping narrow rails for tenoning and full case sides for dovetailing equally well.  Moxon vises also raise the work several inches from your bench, which can be a great help for detail work or aching backs. Lastly, since they clamp to your bench, you don’t need to commit to a vise location. Handy in a multi-user shop like Shop Class.  

There are many plans for Moxon vices available online, and several completed versions for sale. However, unlike some other vises with that span, a Moxon vise doesn’t require complicated or expensive hardware. You can buy everything at a home center. This one was built from plans available from Woodsmith and the hardware is a kit available from Wood River.

Cutting the dovetails in the thick hard maple can be tricky, however the design ensures the vice and work surface are rock solid. Crubber, a cork and rubber combination lines the jaws gripping and protecting your work piece. We used dedicated fence clamps to hold the vice to the bench, but you can use a “F” clamp.

So far, I have used the vice for cutting mortises and cleaning up joinery. Cutting the thick dovetails in the vice would have been much easier if I had a Moxon vice to use.