Best wood choice for dogs

[bbarry9999]

Newbie question alert!!!!

I recently completed my 1st workbench, now it's time to make my square dogs. Is there a preference/best choice for the type of wood for bench dogs? I assume a hard wood is better than soft woods like pine, but thought I'd check in with this group before making a silly mistake.

Thanks

Bill

[tdale51@yahoo.com]

What material is you bench made from? I think you would do well to make the dogs out of a wood equal to or less hard than your bench. My reasoning is, over the years of putting the dogs in and out of their holes there's liable to be some wear of the holes and the dogs themselves and it would be much easier to remake dogs then shrink a worn out hole.

[konkers]

Newbie question alert!!!!

I recently completed my 1st workbench, now it's time to make my square dogs. Is there a preference/best choice for the type of wood for bench dogs? I assume a hard wood is better than soft woods like pine, but thought I'd check in with this group before making a silly mistake.

Thanks

Bill

My bench is Doug-Fir and I made my dogs out of some scrap hard maple I had laying around. Given how tough the Fir end grain was to pare/plane and the fact that the face grain of the dog is pressing against the end grain of the Fir, I'm not too worried. Even if there is wear over the years, I can always clean up the dog holes and make larger dogs if needed.

[bbarry9999]

Thanks guys

[Mike M]

I used hard maple dogs in a soft maple hole.