Vibrotactile forward masking experiments were conducted on the thenar eminence of the hand to determine the time course of masking in the Pacinian (P) or a non‐Pacinian (NP I) channel. Brief masking and test stimuli that contained energy centered either below 27 or at 500 Hz were used to preferentially activate the NP I or P channels, respectively. Test thresholds were measured at different fixed delays (Δt) between the masking and test stimuli that ranged from 5 to 995 ms. Masking stimulus level was also varied from 5 to 25 dB above threshold. The masking effect followed an exponential decay with different time constants for each of the channels, but a similar asymptote (residual masking) for both channels. At the higher masking stimulus levels, the time constant for the P channel was about 40 ms, while the time constant for the NP I channel was about 100 ms. Residual masking in both channels increased about 1 dB for every 5‐dB increase of masking stimulus level.