To Anyone Who Has Worked With Utile/Sipo

[Julie Moriarty]

I picked up about 40 bd/ft of Utile yesterday. Never worked with the stuff. Wondering about how it is with tooling. I've seen it's hard on edge tools and I've seen it's good with edge tools.

For anyone who was worked with Utile, what's been your experience with it?

[glenn bradley]

Like a lot of the "mahoganies"

378170

it seems to be all over the map depending on source, geographical location and who knows what. I find it an affordable, easily machined fairly stable material when sharp cutters and grain direction are taken into account.

378173

The sections of interlocking grain can be a challenge but, workable. I have had the occasional board that stress-relieves like crazy but, no more often than maple, cherry and others. My experience is based on So Cal prepared and stored material from my preferred yard.

[John K Jordan]

This article describes the workability and properties: http://www.wood-database.com/utile/

[Julie Moriarty]

Thanks, Glen. My immediate concern is blunting edges. The wood I picked up is right off the bandsaw (and into the kiln) but none of the surfaces have been planed or sanded smooth. So I'm wondering if I should run it through the drum sander or the planer. The knives on the planer are almost new and I do have a second set but if the wood is going to wreck the knives after a few passes, I'll go with the drum sander.

John, I read the wood database info on it but it didn't mention what it does to tool edges. The wood is about the same weight as jatoba and seems almost as dense which made me wonder about what it will do to the tools when planed or sawn. I have some newly sharpened saw blades I don't want to have to send right back for sharpening again.

[peter gagliardi]

I have used it for probably 15 years now, and many thousands of bf. It is an excellent machining wood, and though it can have interlocked grain, it moves less when cutting than Sapele, and much,much less than African Mahogany.
Overall, it is not much worse on edges if clean, than oaks, maples, or the Sapele, or African Mahogany. I would say it is ever so slightly more abrasive.
I run it through steel all the time.

[Julie Moriarty]

Thanks, Peter. That's pretty much what I was looking for. :)