Where can I buy rough sawn ipe?

[kenneth kayser]

I would like to buy some rough sawn ipe. I tried searching this site, but the search engine will not search on "ipe" because it says it is too small or too common. I tried searching for brazilian walnut but the search engine will only accept "brazilian" OR "walnut".

Can anyone tell me where I can buy some ipe to play around with. I live in Wisconsin, and have not found any source for ipe.

[dan sherman]

try using Google to search the creek, it will search for 3 letter words. :D

http://www.google.com/search?q=ipe&sitesearch=www.sawmillcreek.org

[jim gossage]

I have bought rough ipe from wall lumber at www.walllumber.com (http://www.walllumber.com) for $6 per boardfoot.

[erik anderson]

Try Benntt Hardwoods in Wausau. At one point they did have rough sawn Ipe as well as the decking/dimensioned stuff. They have an impressive selection of exotics.

[Tony Shea]

That is some nasty stuff to work with, especially if it's in rough sawn form. Hope your dust collection works damn good. And where a dust mask too, that stuff is nasty!

[Brian Effinger]

Try Advantage Lumber (http://www.advantagelumber.com/) if you don't mind shipping.

[kenneth kayser]

After reading a bit more about ipe, I have decided that rough lumber is too hard on planers and jointers. Apparently, it has a lot of silica in it and will even dull carbide blades quickly. Thanks for the tips.

[Van Huskey]

I was going to mention that but guessed you knew how tough it was on cutters. I watched as a crew built a boardwalk and docks down through our neighborhood out of ipe and they went through stacks of blades.

[Glen Butler]

After reading a bit more about ipe, I have decided that rough lumber is too hard on planers and jointers. Apparently, it has a lot of silica in it and will even dull carbide blades quickly. Thanks for the tips.

How then is it milled and surfaced? Abrasive sanders rather than carbide cutters?

[Peter Quinn]

How then is it milled and surfaced? Abrasive sanders rather than carbide cutters?

We use it now and then for some odd things in the millwork department, and it isn't fun to wrk with, but it can be worked with HSS. I swear it. We plane it, joint it, all HSS. Its never a lot of material mind you, maybe a few boards or a few dozen at best. It does dull cutters quicker than most species, but it does not wreck HSS like teak does. I have seen teak take out a set of HSS jointer knives in a single pass. We usually finish the faces on the wide belt, and the stink of the dust from that is nauseating.

Oh, gluing it is no real joy either. IPE isn't one tree, but a few different similar species sold under a marketing name. Some of it will glue easily, other boards not so much. We have had long grain glue ups left overnight in clamps pop the next day as if they were never clamped at all, and the glue is still moist at the glue line, as if the lumber has not absorbed ANY moisture from the titebond III. Other boards glue fine, though a long clamp time is always in order IME.

A friend built a deck with it and used the invisible fasteners that drop into biscuit slots in the edges, and he went through a pile of plate joiner blades which are carbide.

[Glen Butler]

Ipe flooring is quite popular. A large mill has to be able to run large quantities of the stuff. I have heard of diamond cutters. Is milling ipe such an application for it.

[Van Huskey]

IPE isn't one tree, but a few different similar species sold under a marketing name.

Ipe is technically one wood, any specie of the Tabeuia genus but jarrah and a couple of others are sold under trade names like Ironwood etc along with true ipe. Real ipe is much more dense than any of the other "faux" ipe varieties and is the hardest to work, glue and get finish to penetrate.

[Karl Card]

I won an auction for ipe. 64 dollars for 350 board ft. well with this much wood added to my collection i was wondering about fire hazards should a fire break out...Not to worry, has fire ratings of cement and steel. It is hard on tools but wow is it pretty.

[Matt Armstrong]

I won an auction for ipe. 64 dollars for 350 board ft. well with this much wood added to my collection i was wondering about fire hazards should a fire break out...Not to worry, has fire ratings of cement and steel. It is hard on tools but wow is it pretty.

I've worked with a decent amount of Ipe. It's actually a very pretty wood, but the silica imparts a yellowish/greenish tint on the unfinished product. Once finished, especially with oil, it really has a beautiful red/brown grain that's quite stunning. Also, the density of the wood allows you to really sand it to an extremely smooth surface. It's fun to work with and not THAT terrible on cutters.