About the Artist
Living in the East Bay city of Livermore most of my life and growing up with three older brothers, I was blessed to have a father who loved the outdoors. We hunted and fished in places that became cherished environments to me.
I transitioned to fly fishing 25 years ago and to fly tying shortly afterward. I tied on an old Thompson vise, and after seeing a Renzetti in a shop, I decided to make my own. My dad was a machinist, and I thought it would be a nice project. He said, “Why make one when you already have one?” So to show Pop, it became a challenge. Never having worked with metal before, I had to climb a learning curve. My goal was to make just one vise to tie all those lovely trout flies. Now, after 40-plus vises, I’m still learning. Form and function blend with imagination and feasibility to design whatever my mind can conceive: a tying tool to grace our quest to imitate nature.
I work for United Parcel Service in Oakland as a “brown soldier ant,” and this keeps me in good enough shape to worry the trout in the harder-to-reach places. For that, I’m thankful, because it is in such places where the trout live that a part of me thrives and the many loose pieces of my life come together.
With my vises, I find the same contentment. Building them brings me to a place with no right or wrong, no judgment or negative criticism, traversing untrodden ground.
I’ve used gold, silver, brass, aluminum, steel, and titanium. In wood, I’ve used ebony, walnut, maple, cherry, and bamboo. In stone, I’ve made vises in onyx, granite, and marble, with marble being my favorite. The jaws are hardened to a 53 Rockwell rating.
I have a website currently under construction where people will be able to view my work: http://www.marlodipietro.com. I can be contacted at viseart@comcast.net.
Marlo DiPietro
