"Harold and Susan Vordos" wrote in message
news

"Bob Engelhardt" wrote in message
...
Rob Kramer wrote:
...
My question: how can I best re-harden them? ...

Do you really want them hard? Why? Bob

Jaws for holding finished pieces are best if they're hardened. While I've
not done a hardness check of mine (a Kurt), I would assume they run in the
mid 50Rc range. That avoids dinging the jaws with chips or other
objects, and transferring the dings to the next part installed.
Hardening the jaws is a good idea.

I like the replaceable jaws on my big vises. If I had a vise with soft jaws
and wanted hard ones, I'd drill and tap them for replaceable jaws, which I
could easily make as hard as I want.

--
Ed Huntress