Hello Andy,

​I bought the Bison system from the Old Forge at Oakham perhaps 25 years ago, along with a bunch of holders having had a generous Christmas present. They have been excellent in all respects and I have never found the need or even the wish to make any comparison with other methods.

I am unsure then how you are going to be able to evaluate responses as there will be devotees of each who will have experience in isolation, leaving you trying to compare apples and pears.

The only ones to avoid surely will be those that have proved faulty or disappointing in some way, but whether or not you will get admissions of failure remains to be seen.

As in all things, I suspect buying cheap means buying twice

Regards Brian

Bison (Dickson clone) – excellent. Had mine on my Boxford for 13 years. Genuine tool holders are not cheap, but they are good, and hard. Made another 16 myself, photos in my album.

Chinese wedge type (Aloris clone)- would be my other alternative. Not the piston push out type.

From the various cheap(ish) QCTP varieties, these two are the only options IMO.

Or make the whole thing yourself, there are various designs on the net, Sir John's and the MLA design in particular spring to mind.

I've only used proper Dickson tool posts but the better QCTP seem to be the ones that pull the tool holder into the post for good rigidity. Some of the other designs out there push the tool holder out away from the post to lock them which doesn't seem like a good idea to me. As far as I am aware the Bison is a faithful Polish? copy of the British Dickson. The only dovetail type that looks any good to me is the wedge type but how well made the Far East copies are compared to the American made ones is another matter.