Leather for vise jaws?

[Robert Hayward]

What is the best leather to line the jaws of a woodworking vise? Thickness, rough or smooth and etc.

I have a Groz vise that I lined the cast iron jaws with wood but the wood is hard and slippery.

[Richard Coers]

The best vise jaw protectors I've used are 1/4" plywood with a thin plastic strip magnet on one side and felt on the other. The magnet strip has just enough power to keep it steady, and can easily be taken off.

[Phil Mueller]

Robert, you might want to read through this Neander thread.

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?282561-Vise-Chop-facing-Ideas

[Ryan Yeaglin]

how about 1/8" self adhesive cork? Won't mar, helps grip things and is cheap to replace. As to leather, whatever would be cheap and on the rougher side as to not be slippery would be my choice.

[Ira Matheny]

I created a pair of ply-wood jaws and covered them with 'Glove' leather. I've used them for 5+ years, and I still use them. They protect the tender item, increase the grip on 'odd shaped' items and generally help in the proper use of the vice, without damaging the finished product.
Not hard to make. 2 pieces of 1/2 ply, two pieces of glove leather, and a few 'tacks'.
Viola!. In 20 minutes...soft vice jaws.
Ira

[Harvey Miller]

Lee Valley uses top-grain leather for their jaw liners & from a post on Fine woodworking forums suggested 3/32" thickness (or 6-7 oz), preferably on drop-in thin plywood liners.

[Frederick Skelly]

I used unfinished plywood to line my vise's jaws and it holds just fine. One day, I'll order some Crubber from Benchcrafted, just to see what I've been missing.

[Patrick Kane]

Personally haven’t used cribbed, but it sounds interesting.

I had a thread about this awhile back. Someone suggested an upholster and so I did. Went to the guy that made the leather cushions for my Morris chairs and he gave me a fair amount of leather from the scrap bin. I glued it to thin wood with the rough side out and used magnets to hold them to my vise jaws. Man, what a different. Doesn’t mar my workpiece and grips like a bulldog. It helped that the guy knew me and I just spent $2000+ a year before I asked him, but maybe give that a go? Free is always nice.

[Robert Hayward]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I have looked at crubber and it looks good but for some reason I think I would like to use leather. Ebay looks to be flooded with leather sellers. A piece 12" X 12" will cover both jaws with a strip left over. Thickness and type was what I had no clue about. The other thread that was mentioned had a lot of good information. The thickness Lee Valley uses was also helpful. Not sure they are the definitive source of knowledge but they are respected. I am going to go with a piece 1/8" thick and vegetable tanned to start this experiment with.

The wood jaw liners I made for the vise took a bit of work to make. The Groz vise has jaws that are "toed" in, and they call it a feature. I did not like this feature and made my liners tapered so the jaws closed flat. Not wanting to spread glue all over those nice liners I will have to make a couple more to glue the leather to.

[Bob Andre]

I used a leather bend from a leather goods supplier in Maine. Very thick and tough. It's the butt back. It wasn't cheap buf served 3 vises with some left over and will not wear out. Glued it to the jaws with 3m spray adhesive and it's still fine with age.

[Robert Hayward]

I used a leather bend from a leather goods supplier in Maine. Very thick and tough. It's the butt back. It wasn't cheap buf served 3 vises with some left over and will not wear out. Glued it to the jaws with 3m spray adhesive and it's still fine with age.

Did you glue so the rough side of the hide was exposed? That is what I intend to do. What 3M adhesive did you use? 77, 90 or what?

[Tom Bender]

To glue leather to wood is easy, almost any glue is much stronger than leather which will delaminate way before the glue fails. Even rubber cement might work.

[Prashun Patel]

I used some old horse butt leather. I used epoxy. Works fine but I won’t be able to replace it easily.

[Frank Pratt]

I bought a small hide at the local leather store & used it for pads on clamps & vises. Glued onto the vice faces with PVA, rough side out. People who've used Crubber say it's better, but I hadn't heard of it when I did the leather & it works very well.

[George Yetka]

This stuff looks promising
https://www.in-kleind.com/store/13-x-37-Cork-Rubber-p142772327

[Bruce Page]

I used some 4mm thick leather from Amazon. I used 3M 777 spray adhesive to glue them to the maple jaws.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0716RH292/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Bob Hinden]

This stuff looks promising
https://www.in-kleind.com/store/13-x-37-Cork-Rubber-p142772327

I built/installed one of his Twin Turbo vices, it came with the cork rubber for the vice jaws. I like it a lot. It's a good combination of padded and non-slip.

Bob

p.s. The Twin Turbo vice is great!

[Bob Andre]

Robert-sorry to have missed your earlier question regarding glue. I used 3m 77 and left the rough side exposed. Bend leather is about 3/16 thick. Good grip and non marring.