Leather Lining

[Stew Hagerty]

Leather lined vises... one side
both sides
or - to heck with leather

And why????

[Chris Griggs]

No leather for me, but only because I'm an admittedly over zealous vegetarian. I would like to find an alternative but usually don't have issues with the bare wood, so I really haven't put any time into actually investigating other options.

[Frank Drew]

Stew, I'm absolutely convinced of the merits of lining your vise faces with leather, but do both faces for maximum benefit. And having done it both ways, I think you get better gripping with less clamping effort by putting rough face of the leather out. 3M Super 77 spray adhesive worked fine, but I imagine most glues would do.

[Dave Anderson NH]

I have 3 vises and a lot more vices than vises. My main face vise on my newer bench is a wooden twin screw with maple jaws and has no facing. On the diagonal opposite side of the bench is my Emmert K-1. Since it is all metal, I have one jaw lined with rough out leather and the other jaw lined with Corprene, a nitrile rubber and cork blend. Both of these jaw inserts are glued to flexible magnet so the inserts are readily removable. This allows me to use the Emmert for odd shaped metal working without contaminating the faces of the inserts. My old bench has a single metal face vise withwooden jaws bolted on and no special facing.

[Jeff Hamilton Jr.]

Like Dave, my twin-screw face vise is unlined. My tail vise (from Bob Lang's 21st Century Bench) has a wooden chop lined with leather -- smooth side out -- and the other side similarly lined. Rough vs smooth is probably akin to chunky vs creamy, so I'll not try to "win" that debate here! Needless to say, I do agree that it seems less clamping pressure is needed to get the desired result.

[Andrae Covington]

I have leather on the chops of my leg vises, but not on the bench side. One of my leg vises slides... so what would I do, cover the entire front edge of the workbench top in leather? One-side-only seems to work fine. A loose piece of leather placed between the workpiece and the bench would be an option if I felt like I needed leather on both sides.

[Mike Tekin]

Here is my vote...maybe not as durable as leather but works for me and grips like the dickens...

Check out option "C" for a sheet to cut your own to size...
Lee Valley High Friction Sheet

[John Coloccia]

Here is my vote...maybe not as durable as leather but works for me and grips like the dickens...

Check out option "C" for a sheet to cut your own to size...
Lee Valley High Friction Sheet

Gee thanks...I just ordered some pucks, disks and sheets. LOL.

My bench vises have wooden faces on them, but I have pieces of leather cut that fit the faces when I need some cushioning.

[Paul Saffold]

My leg vise and my Record 52 have leather on both faces. The machinist vise in the garage is sometimes used for metal work and has wooden magnetic liners available if needed.

[Bob Strawn]

I do a fair bit of metal work on my patternmakers vise, and filings will bed in leather. The filings then wait concealed so they can jump out and scratch fine surfaces. I now like to use tempered hardboard that has been waxed and heated so the wax would soak in. If I am working with a soft wood, I may fold a bit of leather over it before I put it in the vise to soften the grip.

Bob

[Dave Anderson NH]

Bob,

Consider getting yourself some flexible magnet and gluing your surfaces of choice to it. That way you can change jaw inserts depending on application. I almost always use my Emmert without inserts when working meteal because I too do notwant the filings in my woodworking some time down the road. After working metal with the Emmert I vacuum and brush it to get rid of any residue.

[Billy McCarthy]

I was just pondering putting leather on my vise. It's a metal Columbian, so I put a piece of birch (leftover from making my benchtop) on each side. I've found that it doesn't grip terribly well, pieces tend to rotate. My wife had some extra red leather, so hopefully it will not just grip better, but be more stylish too.

[Matthew N. Masail]

Here is my vote...maybe not as durable as leather but works for me and grips like the dickens...

Check out option "C" for a sheet to cut your own to size...
Lee Valley High Friction Sheet

I wondering if someone uses this.... I bought a sheet for the exact same purpose but havn't gotten around to making wooded jaws for my vise, good to know it's O.K! thanks.

on the same (sort of) note, I used this tape http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/pag...54&cat=1,42207 to line the bottom my strops, now I can strop without clamping and it holds great. it makes it so easy, I just have the strop hanging over my workbench, can get much nicer than that! works great for bench hooks and endless other stuff.... like lining metal working vises, it's flexible and "goo like" so it can be stuck onto odd shape.

[Derek Cohen]

Leather on my leg vise (both chop and bench side) makes a significant difference. It worked without this, but it works better with it.

Better grip, and greater peace of mind when it comes to protecting the surface of boards.

Others swear by cork or rubber.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Bob Strawn]

Bob,

Consider getting yourself some flexible magnet and gluing your surfaces of choice to it. That way you can change jaw inserts depending on application. I almost always use my Emmert without inserts when working meteal because I too do notwant the filings in my woodworking some time down the road. After working metal with the Emmert I vacuum and brush it to get rid of any residue.

Makes good sense, I have just the magnets for it.

Bob