leg vise chop material

[Nelson Howe]

Hi folks,
I'm building my bench from some reclaimed materials that came from a high school that was torn down. The top is a section of the old shop work surface, complete with staples, nails, screws, and that snapped off drill bit that ate a gouge in my nice wooden jointer. (When you have a metal detector, you should remember to use it.) The base is from sections of old growth douglas fir 6 x 10 beams milled into not-quite 5 x 5s.

According to Hoadley, doug fir's stiffness is comparable to syp and greater than maple. But it is softer than the hard woods.

Would the doug fir be too soft to use for my leg vise and end vise chops? I know Christopher Schwartz makes his bench out of syp, but uses ash for his chop, even though syp has a higher stiffness rating. Is this because of its relative softness, and problems with dinging up over time?

Thanks,

Nelson

[george wilson]

I always make the chops out of maple,or at least beech. Fir is too easy to chip or splinter at the edges.

[David Gendron]

Mine is made out of red oak. But I think if you have real old growth DF, and you do a nice chanfer on all outside edges, you should be find!

[Joe McMahon]

Mine is made from walnut and I'm pretty happy with it. Why not go for it with your old growth doug fir? What is the worst that could happen - you have to make another one from some other species? You have the "old school" bench, why not stick with what you have?

[Paul Incognito]

It's for me.
I say use what you have. Doug fir is not the prettiest wood around, but more than usable for your purpose. If it doesn't work out long term or it's not pretty enough for you, modify it then. Or better yet, use the experience you gained from building this bench to build your next, and make it a show piece.
My opinion...and you know what they say about opinions.
PI

[Josh Bowman]

Mine is made from walnut and I'm pretty happy with it. Why not go for it with your old growth doug fir? What is the worst that could happen - you have to make another one from some other species? You have the "old school" bench, why not stick with what you have?
I'm at the same stage in my bench building, thanks for the Thread. Actually there is a win win side to experimenting with the DF. If it doesn't work out, you have a template for the next one.

[Nelson Howe]

Thanks for the input. It'll stick with the Doug fir, which was my original preference, and see how it goes. I don't really care about pretty. I just want it to work well.

Nelson

[Jeff Wittrock]

I was wondering about this myself when I made my bench out of SYP. I went ahead and made the leg vise out of SYP as well. Stiffness is not a problem, but I have to say it is probably too soft. Part of this is my own fault in that the leg vise ends up clamping more than just wood. I been thinking about just making a maple or oak face for it since generally only the top 3" or so see hard use.

[Nelson Howe]

When you say it's too soft, what do you mean? Is it dinging up on you? Did you glue leather to the face? I, too, have been thinking about facing it with maple, the same as with a wooden plane.

Nelson

[Jeff Wittrock]

When you say it's too soft, what do you mean? Is it dinging up on you? Did you glue leather to the face?

Yes. I often end up clamping small or narrow pieces of hard wood in the leg vise and over time have dinged the surface up pretty well. I don't have a leather face and I am sure that it would help whether or not I also face it with a harder wood.

I have thought of having a removable face that could be made from hardwood and/or lined with leather, but have never gotten around to it.

-Jeff