Doug, no doubt that hard maple would be better...but it's tougher to find. Probably the best I could do is to "laminate" 3, 3/4" thick pieces of maple wood and cut from there once the glue had cured. I have the mahogany left over from rebuilding my porch railing.

legalize_it, I'm using the exact same Craftsman vise, with the jaw faces flipped around and everything.

Pete