What is the difference between hard and soft vise jaws?

MaxxVise Hard jaws are manufactured from hardened tool steel, featuring precision-ground flat surfaces or aggressive serrated teeth. They are designed for first-operation roughing cycles on raw bar stock, billets, and castings, where maximum holding grip and wear resistance are required. While hard jaws withstand aggressive cutting forces without deforming, their hardened serrations indent the workpiece material and leave visible clamping marks on finished surfaces.

MaxxVise Soft jaws are unhardened blanks typically machined from aluminum. Machinists mill custom pockets, steps, or curved contours directly into the soft jaw faces to match the exact geometry of a partially machined part during second-operation work. This customized contact distributes clamping pressure across delicate or contoured surfaces, preventing surface indentation, damping vibration, and providing precise part relocation relative to the machine spindle.