Anyone ever turn some Ipe wood?

[Odie]

Just roughed a bowl from Ipe, and I think this is the most difficult wood to turn that I've ever encountered. Dulls cutting edges very quickly. Previously, the winner was Desert Ironwood, but Ipe has a Janka rating of 3510 while the Desert Ironwood is a mere 3260 Janka hardness rating. (That's pretty darn hard and dense, no matter how you look at it.) It didn't help that this piece of Ipe was around 10% MC......so, it's been setting in storage somewhere for a long time to begin with.

https://www.wood-database.com/ipe/

https://www.wood-database.com/desert-ironwood/

-----odie-----

 

[hockenbery]

Ipe is popular for decking, flooring, outdoor furniture...
Has a reputation for long lasting outdoor use.
Should be easy to get as cutoffs.

In Maryland we got lots of Purple Heart cutoffs from the boating industry free or almost free.
Another rot resistant wood.

 

[Jason Van Duyn]

many years ago when I was working in historic restoration we replaced a couple decks with Ipe. I saved some of the cutoffs to glue up a blank so that I could turn some chisel mallets out of. My turning experience at that time was much more limited than now but I have similar recollections. If I recall right sanding it was kinda interesting, the dust seemed like it was highlighter yellow. Its been a good mallet, other than the fibers tear off the outside a bit, but its not too bad. The wood was free so its the right price anyways.

JVD
www.vanduynwoodwork.com

 

[Bill Boehme]

I have a bunch of quarter sawn 2X4 ipe cutoffs that I got about ten years ago. Like everybody said, it's hard and really heavy. I thought it would be good for making mallets and it is if you're just tapping on wood chisels, but I discovered that it is a poor substitute for lignum vitae if you need a serious heavy duty mallet. Since ipe doesn't have interlocking grain it will splinter if you use it as a sledgehammer to drive wooden stakes into hard ground.

A bit OT: I was considering using ipe to replace my old redwood deck, but after testing it in the sun for several months there was a lot of checking and splintering despite having a linseed oil type deck finish. Quarter sawn redwood on the other hand fared much better. So, my new deck is redwood.

 

[Mike Johnson]

I have turned quite a bit of "Tiger" wood which is the other popular high end decking material. Some of these pieces have really nice grain patterns to work with when turning various items.

 

[robo hippy]

Ipe has a lot of silica in it and a lot of oil. If you lay a board out in the sun, it glitters. You can take a 1 X 6 and span 2 feet with it. While there can be some checking with it in the sun, it will out wear just about any other wood out there for decking. It wears in the weather like teak. My door thresh holds are made from Ipe. They will need no finish, though some do finish it.

robo hippy

 

[Bill Boehme]

Ipe has a lot of silica in it and a lot of oil. If you lay a board out in the sun, it glitters. You can take a 1 X 6 and span 2 feet with it. While there can be some checking with it in the sun, it will out wear just about any other wood out there for decking. It wears in the weather like teak. My door thresh holds are made from Ipe. They will need no finish, though some do finish it.

robo hippy

The "decider" at my house said she didn't like ipe so that settled that.

 

[Bob Sheppard]

Ipe has a lot of silica in it and a lot of oil. If you lay a board out in the sun, it glitters. You can take a 1 X 6 and span 2 feet with it. While there can be some checking with it in the sun, it will out wear just about any other wood out there for decking. It wears in the weather like teak. My door thresh holds are made from Ipe. They will need no finish, though some do finish it.

robo hippy

That's my experience with Ipe. It will wear out a tool edge pretty quickly because of the silica. The only other wood I had so much problem with silica content is teak.

 

[RichColvin]

Ipe gets used often by ornamental turners.

 

[Odie]

The reason I picked out this bowl blank, is it looked like it had some crotch figure in it........that mostly disappeared, but a hint is still showing. I won't be buying anymore of Ipe, now that I know a little more about it!

-----odie------

 

[Tom Albrecht]

Have you ever seen LONG flatbed trucks with a wooden deck? It's probably Ipe.
It's outstanding to use for exterior newels and finials.

If you are a fish and seafood eater, think about it in terms of all the "new" fish you see at the markets now-days. It's all stuff that they used throw, back or turn into cat food. Now we have Ipe, formerly used as truck decking.

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

Have you ever seen LONG flatbed trucks with a wooden deck? It's probably Ipe.
It's outstanding to use for exterior newels and finials.

If you are a fish and seafood eater, think about it in terms of all the "new" fish you see at the markets now-days. It's all stuff that they used throw, back or turn into cat food. Now we have Ipe, formerly used as truck decking.

Tom most flatbeds use white oak. lighter than Ipe and easier to work.

 

[Mike Maffitt]

Ipe is very dense, some hospitals will use the wood for handrails. It turns well, as dense as African Blackwood but not as chalky.

 

[Bill Boehme]

If you are a fish and seafood eater, think about it in terms of all the "new" fish you see at the markets now-days. It's all stuff that they used throw, back or turn into cat food. Now we have Ipe, formerly used as truck decking.

Tilapia, formerly considered a trash fish, comes to mind ... actually a generic name that could be a number of brackish water species in the tilapia genus.

Orange Roughy was originally known by the less than tasteful name of "Slime Head". It was renamed in the 1970's to improve its public image.

Thank you, but I'll stick with bass, crappie, salmon, and trout.

Before Ipe became fashionable (and expensive) it was called "lapacho" or sometimes Brazilian walnut by importers because of its walnut like color. Ipe (pronounced ee-pay) could just as well be named you-pay.

 

[Tom Albrecht]

In the local custom millwork shop where I used to work they refer to ipe as type of mahogany. They mostly use it for making big entry doors and heavy moulding for expensive homes.

Tom most flatbeds use white oak. lighter than Ipe and easier to work.

I should have said that they formerly used ipe for truckbeds, as it is extremely dense.

 

[robo hippy]

When I first started seeing it around here in Oregon, it was $3/bf. Way over that now. As for truck beds, there was a wood around for a while, apitong, one of the many woods from SE Asia, of which there were many varieties that was cheaper then Ipe, also very dense, and great for outdoor use. The things they do for marketing..... Like Oregon Myrtle wood.... People still insist that it is a different tree from the California Bay Laurel.... "only difference is the state border lines....."

robo hippy

 

[Tom Albrecht]

I stand corrected. I was thinking of Sapele, a type of Mahogany that is more dense, often more figured, and stronger than Honduran Mahogany. I was at the mill shop this afternoon and saw these Ipe steps waiting to be picked up. They hate working with Ipe.

 

[Christerphor Hurst]

The only Ipe I've worked with is reclaimed material from the Coney Island boardwalk. Very hard and very oily. The worst part though is the smell! Smells like funky feet. I tried turning a top out of a 4x4 block and it made my garage smell so bad my wife said enough, no more of that please.

 

[Bob Sheppard]

The only Ipe I've worked with is reclaimed material from the Coney Island boardwalk. Very hard and very oily. The worst part though is the smell! Smells like funky feet. I tried turning a top out of a 4x4 block and it made my garage smell so bad my wife said enough, no more of that please.

I never noticed a bad smell with Ipe, and I've done 2 decks, and turned some of it. I wonder if the Coney Island wood smell could be from food dropped on it. OTOH, I don't have a great sense of smell, so I might just have missed the odor

 

[Greg Van Eeckhout]

Have you ever seen LONG flatbed trucks with a wooden deck? It's probably Ipe.
It's outstanding to use for exterior newels and finials.

If you are a fish and seafood eater, think about it in terms of all the "new" fish you see at the markets now-days. It's all stuff that they used throw, back or turn into cat food. Now we have Ipe, formerly used as truck decking.

Yes it’s also like what is available “locally” I was in Mexico a few years ago and bought a bunch of goncalo alves from a wood shop down there, they were just using it to make wagon/trailer boxes! Wonderful outside/inside beautiful wood but to locals it was just “tough” wood

 

[John Ames]

This cup was made with a lot of ipe in it…
The silica content is rather insane. Very tough on tools and hard to sand evenly with the other woods involved.

If you get lucky, the yellow flecks throughout will pop when you apply your final finish which makes it look like little flecks of gold. It’s interesting to turn but difficult.

 

[Kevin Jenness]

Awful stuff. Lasts forever, splintery, oily, hard on tools and smells like the devil's throne room.

 

[Dave Hulett]

haven't turned any IPE but did make a nice patio table out of it years ago. Beautiful wood. During a storm the old patio table blew over and broke. simple pine. IPE is heavy! this one won't go anywhere. I can imagine turning it you'd just keep your grinder on as you'll be sharpening constantly!

 

[Hugh]

A friend of mine, who was a cabinet maker, had a wood supplier who sold my friend some Ipe. The wood supplier was also a baseball fan. The cabinet maker turned him a 6' long baseball bat out of Ipe.
Kind of cool.
I tried to turn a bowl out of some one time. The dust turned my shop yellow. Then the bowl blew apart. That was the last time I tried it.

 

[Bob Sheppard]

6' Ipe bat? That must be heavy. Who can swing it? Paul Bunyon?

 

[Dave Hulett]

A friend of mine, who was a cabinet maker, had a wood supplier who sold my friend some Ipe. The wood supplier was also a baseball fan. The cabinet maker turned him a 6' long baseball bat out of Ipe.
Kind of cool.
I tried to turn a bowl out of some one time. The dust turned my shop yellow. Then the bowl blew apart. That was the last time I tried it.

bat woud indeed be cool but heavvvvyyyyy!

 

[Peter Jacobson]

There's a guy near me (Philadelphia area) trying to sell a bunch of ipe logs. They look like reclaimed pilings from his pics. He would have given me a few smaller length pieces to see what I could turn from them, but after remembering what it took to work the ipe I built my deck from, I decided to pass. If anyone's interested I can probably find the FB listing.

 

[Doug Rasmussen]

This is a long ago picture of ipe wood turned on the lathe used as a die to hydraulic press form 18 ga steel using 50 tons force. Usually dies like this were made of aluminum, but ipe proved to be strong enough.

I got a bunch ipe left over from a deck job so the price was right.

The pictured item is part of classic car restoration needing a new headlight assembly. From memory the part was about 8" diameter.

 

[Peter Van Rijssen]

I've got several large pieces of Lignum Vitae that I've been ignoring. Janka is 4390. As a child my family lived in Bogota and my bed and our dining table were all lignum.

 

[Doug Rasmussen]

Testing a few woods today. The top and bottom pieces are both 6" wide oval pockets.

Bottom is Sapele, lignum vitae, then desert ironwood at the top. I thought there was some ipe in my pile, apparently not.

The Sapele had once over with 400 grit, porous and would need a filler (I think). The others are as cut. The other two, not sure if they should be sanded or not. And not sure if to leave them as is without any finish (thoughts?)

My favorite is the ironwood and I have quite a bit of it. It's going to be hard to find any that isn't badly checked (like this piece).




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