Best Wood for Vise Liner

[Mike Hutchison]

I have an old Wilton woodworking vise that had been sitting on the floor of the shop for a couple years.
Recently managed to get the "handle"(made up of galvanized pipe pieces) tied to the screw solidly.
Now I need to figure out how to install it on a table I built for my print shop which I am going to convert
to a planing/work bench. If I get that far, what would the appropriate choices for wood to put in the vise
as clamp pads/liner for jaws? For some reason am guessing Poplar.

[John Coloccia]

It really doesn't matter. Personally, I like something hard, but not so hard that it dents my work pieces. Mahogany, beech...things like that.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

This is one of those places I simply reach for what is cheap and easily available. John's recommendation about hardness is a good one too, though. Something that's relatively dimensionally stable, or at least has dried out as much as it's really going to, is also nice, because you can more easily keep the top of the chop flush with the bench, which is handy if you're using it as an end vise at all.

It's the sort of thing I see myself replacing mine at some point in the future, it picks up cuts and scrapes and what have you if you aren't careful. I'm not as careful as I could be, I suppose.

[Rob Matarazzo]

I just replaced the maple liners on my vise with oak. When I first set up my workbench about 25 years ago, I used maple liners about 1/8" thick that I cut to the same size as the vise jaws. I just didn't know any better at the time. They have worked fine, but the effective size of the vise jaws was too small. This time around, I made the jaws out of 1 x 6 oak boards and cut them to a much larger size. So far so good.

[Jeff Duncan]

I need to make some new ones for my vise as well. I've been wondering about tracking down some Poly, the kind used for power feed tires, but in sheet form and trying that. Seems like it would hold a lot better with less pressure on the work piece? Soooo.....anyone tried it???

JeffD

[john davey]

I just grabed scrap that was availble in my scrap pile. Cherry is what was there and it is working fine.

[glenn bradley]

Beech lined with leather but, this is a question with a thousand answers, all correct ;)

[Sam Takeuchi]

Beech lined with leather but, this is a question with a thousand answers, all correct ;)

Is that so? Then I shall nominate shark teeth lined liner!

[Frank Drew]

I agree with Glenn; the best wood for a woodworking vise is anything faced with leather, preferably rough side out.

[Bill Houghton]

One negative recommendation: do NOT use masonite/hardboard. Way too slick.

Bill, a voice of experience

[Jim Matthews]

I use sheet cork, available from musical instrument repair suppliers.

If things are too slippery, I tuck in a shelf liner.

[John Coloccia]

Hey, I've used cork too. You can actually get it from your local Staples in rolls :)

It's a little squishy for my tastes, but that's just my personal tastes.

Those chisels showed up, BTW. I'm going to get to them tomorrow :D

[Chris Griggs]

Hey, I've used cork too. You can actually get it from your local Staples in rolls :)

It's a little squishy for my tastes, but that's just my personal tastes.

Those chisels showed up, BTW. I'm going to get to them tomorrow :D

Me too. Works great. I also use it with my holdfasts. You can get rolls of it at Lowes also.

[Chris Fournier]

All of my vises are lined with tempered masonite - it's cheap, easy to replace and durable but not so precious that you won't sacrifice it for a given task. I have never found it to compromise grip but if you thought that it might you could sand it with 80 grit prior to installing it. Cork is too fragile and squishy for my taste.