Bought a woodworking vice today

[Don Armstrong]

Have used about every vice made except a woodworking vice. What kind of wood works best for the jaws. I picked one up at Harbor Freight today. Thanks, Don

[TomK]

Hard Rock Maple

[George Tsoukalas]

I use one for bows. I line it with leather so as not to damage the wood.  Jawge

[Lgraham]

I put soft wood on there(pine usually) because it will hold tight but won't dent into whatever you are working on. Once the pine is all dented up I just replace it.

[Don Armstrong]

I was thinking something soft. I have some leather but it's probably not thick enough. I have some pine 2X4's, so I'll try them.  Thanks, Don

[don s]

don, if you have leather and it's not thick enough. just glue up several layers to the thickness you want. don

[b.glass]

How do you attach either to the jaws of the vice.

[BigJim]

I used to use cypress and I glued it to the steel faces with thick super glue. The little bolts provided would strip out of the soft wood easily. I have  worn out two of the irwin vises in the last couple of years (they aren't designed to hold pices at an angle and I wore out the worm drive on the vise's)
The cypress was nice and never marred a bow.
I have since purchase a new vice from wilton that is designed to clamp odd shaped piece. It has a quick release and I just absolutely love it although it was a little pricey. Lined it with the hard maple and used the bolts. They hold fine in the maple, but if I'm not careful, it will make markes in the bow.
BigJim

[don s]

i put a thin piece of leather on the jaws held in place with the screws that held the hard jaws in place. then i glue a couple layers of the thin leather over that. i'm not planning on using the hard jaws again so i wasn't worried about glueing the leather over the screw heads. don

[T Folts]

I replace my vice jaws with pine then use rubber cement to line them with leather and it works great, been using for 3 yrs now.

[rbbhunt]

I bought some plastic ones at Lowe's and they work great.  It's not a hard plastic so the conform somewhat to the shape being clamped.

[Roy Steele]

I cut and used 1" rubber pads. No matter how tight you draw the jaws down it dosn't dent the wood. I counter sink the bolts.
   I also use a 2' peice of 1 1/2" pipe to help tighten. Leverage will really save to hands when your constencely moveing your bow around.  That was 20 years ago.
  I had to replace vise's just moved the pads over to the next vice. Only vice I've ever used on bows. I've never found a better bow making vice sure beats the metal vice you see that people use on here.

[Don Armstrong]

Wood vices don't come with jaws, as far as I know, so I will need to use something. I have rubber on my metal vice jaws but am not happy, due to slippage. Will try pine and if not satified, I'll glue some rubber or leather on the pine. Thanks, Don

[Don Armstrong]

Cut a 2X4 today for my vice. I cut two pieces 3/4" X 1 1/2" X 6", screwed them to my vice with drywall screws. I screwed them in, took out, ground a 1/2" off and put back on. So far, it's working great. Thanks, Don

[Gundog68]

I am the owner of a new vise. This is the best one i ever had for woodworking. Simular to this:

 http://www.mehr-als-werkzeug.de/product/705755/Multi-Spannstock/detail.jsf?lang=en

[**DONOTDELETE**]

This may sound a little red neck-ish but the best thing I've found is a couple strips off a mud flap i found along the high way that came off a big rig.

The steel reinforced rubber gives a soft non slip grip.... It makes me think side walls off an old tire might work well too.