I use the vice method but you need a huge lump-of-metal-vice bolted to a solid wooden bench, not one of these little clamp-on things. Most garage workshops have a vice and they generally they you spin off a freewheel.
I tried using a skewer as recomended in all the books, but only once. You need a skewer to hold the tool in place if you use a wrench. With a vice, gravity will hold everything together. If you spin wheel around a few times to remove the freewheel, it will suddenly lock up against the skewer and its really hard to free up.

When fitting the freewheel, grease as advised above, and reverse thread the freeweel, spinning by hand with the tool, till it click into position, then tighten by hand. You don't want to cross-thread a cheap steel freewheel with an expensive aluminium hub.