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• This cute little wooden vise is used to hold square bars of soft stone while a street vendor carves your (usually Chinese) name into the face. Name stamps are a common way of signing documents in many countries with pictographic languages.

• My grandfather had a nutcracker exactly like this one. I assumed he made it himself, given that he was an inventor, but now I’m not so sure: I got this one from a shop in China.

• This is my most specialized vise (which I have to admit I got just for this book). It’s a beautifully made, precision machined vise that holds Apple AirPod wireless headphones without scratching them. Six openings let you clamp the left and right sides of three generations of AirPods. And nothing else.

• I may have many vises, but this isn’t one of them, because it’s a nutcracker.

• Mini Clamp-on Vise

• This aluminum vise is almost a toy, but not if you’re using it for model making or other small, delicate work.

• This vise isn’t very big, but it’s chunky and satisfying. I have at least five of these that I can think of.

• This style of corner clamp/vise squeezes in the other direction.

• A screw can exert more pressure than a lever, allowing this nutcracker to crack even the toughest nuts.

• Small Vise

• Small cast iron vises are clearly meant for serious use, despite their miniature size.

• This elegant vise holds cell phone motherboards for repair work. It’s made of temperature-resistant fiber material (for soldering) on a steel base.

• This tiny vise holds the FaceID camera chip when repairing an iPhone. This is, apparently, a delicate operation that requires very precise alignment.

Do you have a better example of this kind of tool? Let me know by leaving a comment, and include a picture of it if you can so everyone can see!