February 25, 201412 yr I'm not familiar with This wood type. I'll bet I've seen it and just thought it was artificial, as most outdoor projects seem to be. I am also interested it playing around with some of it. My neighbor put in a new floor. A beautiful highly grained wood. I collected some of his scraps, thinking I could make some knitting needles on my mini lathe. Everything I did with it was a disaster. It was so darn hard and it splintered easy. I asked what it was and someone said Bamboo. If it was, it sure fooled me. Anyone know what bamboo wood or IPE is like to work with using shop machinery?
February 25, 201412 yr Ron I am looking into the same thing. I know Ipe is a great outdoors wood, very hard and dense. Also it does not float in water. I understand it is hard to work and asked about it in another forum post here. Harry replied about some information on Woodworkers Source. As I did into this I will let you know what comes of it. Please do the same.
February 25, 201412 yr That's about it for me too. I have not turned any of it but I understand it is pretty hard.
February 26, 201412 yr It's a trendy sustainable tropical hardwood. It's a little oily so use acetone or naphtha on glue joints to lift the oil off. Like Teak it's not real strong. I made some martial arts weapons from teak once and boy they fell apart so fast it wasn't funny
October 12, 20196 yr Somebody slipped an antique post in on you Billy Jack. They all might be dead by now??
October 12, 20196 yr I've never worked with Ipe, but have worked with Teak when I worked at Liberty Coach. I can't remember the name of the glue they used, but do remember it was rather expensive, it was made for marine use.
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.