Hi Harold,

Harold and Susan Vordos wrote:
Assuming the material is medium carbon steel or better, you can heat the
jaws until they are no longer magnetic, then quench. You risk cracking
them if you quench too quickly, so oil may be the better choice. Once
quenched, do as you suggested and draw back the hardness ever so slightly.

Thanks, also to the other posters. This is exactly what I did, and then drew
the temper to brownish. Seems to have worked quite well..

The best scenario, judging from your description of the repaired broken
body, would have been to make the corrections on the body of the vise
instead of the jaws, which could then remain parallel and could be easily
resurfaced without effort, using a surface grinder. Hand working the
jaws may still prove to have been a bad choice.

Yes, possibly.. But I thought it would be hard to file the vice body without
introducing some rounding of the flat behind the jaws. The way the jaws
slot into the body means I can only file the body in one direction, i.e.
sideways, and can't correct any rounding by filing vertically or by
draw-filing. (I hope this is a comprehensible description)

Cheers!

Rob