Tear out on hardboard jigs.

[Jeff Strickler]

I've been building a couple of jigs based on some magazine examples, where the examples made extensive use of hardboard. What I'm noticing is that the hardboard seems to cut really roughly - lots of tear out. My hypothesis is that this is due to buying hardboard that was only finished on one side. Any thoughts or recommendations on reducing the tear out?


Thanks in advance,

[Bill Huber]

I use it all the time but when I cut it I cut with a plywood blade and I don't have much of a problem.

[Frank Hagan]

There's more than one type of hardboard. "Tempered hardboard" is a dark brown, hard material that is smooth on both sides and machines well. Regular hardboard is lighter brown and is often rough on one side, and it does suffer from tearout. Both are pictured below; I use tempered hardboard for jigs all the time, and it works great. The other stuff, with the rough side showing in the picture, is much softer and suffers from tear out a lot.