Ipe cutting board

[kevin nee]

Someone gave me a 1x12x30 piece of Ipe. When I took it out of the truck, I told my wife to feel how heavy it was. She said it would make a nice cutting board. Are there any issues with Ipe that would make this a bad idea. I have never seen an Ipe cutting board.

[William Adams]

It's a tropical hardwood which some folks have allergic reactions to. Envious --- looking forward to hearing what you use it for!

[J.R. Rutter]

Dull knives? :)

[John A Murray]

I built a 10 x 20 deck this past summer from Ipe and have a bunch of scrap pieces that I was thinking of doing something similar. There does not appear to be any food safety issues from my research. Personally, I did not have any allergic reactions from the dust but it always pays to be cautious when cutting. Due to the relative weight of the wood, I would keep the cutting board on the small size unless you also want to incorporate it into an exercise routine as well. If you move forward, please post pics of the finished project.

[Von Bickley]

It's a tropical hardwood which some folks have allergic reactions to. Envious --- looking forward to hearing what you use it for!

I would not use it in contact with food.

[John A Murray]

I would not use it in contact with food.

Please explain why? My research has indicated there is not a problem. The allergic reaction you mention is from the dust associated with the cutting, i.e. sawing, of the wood.

[Patrick Kane]

I had some shorts left over from a lumber auction or something like that at one point. Instead of throwing them away, i used them as a 1" border around an interior of end grain cherry. Board is about 34" by 20" by 3" thick. The ipe looks excellent, but i wouldnt want to cut on it. I have mostly japanese knives with steep bevel angle that would not play nicely with ipe. Cherry might even be harder than ideal, but it was the softest hardwood i had on hand.

Interested in substantiated info on why ipe is bad for food contact. Are you saying people could be allergic to the oils in the wood or what? Like John, you definitely dont want to breathe the stuff.

[Van Huskey]

I have no idea about the allergy issues but my first thought is it will be a pain to make that many glue joints with Ipe.

[kevin nee]

Thanks for the answers so far. I was thinking of making a simple one piece board about 10x12. Not sure what to do with it.

[Mike Hollingsworth]

Not what I would use near food. Termites won't even eat it. It's smell is vile.

[Mike Cutler]

We've had one in our kitchen for twenty years, as well as three made from Bubinga. You're not even going to begin to cut it with a kitchen knife, in any way, to worry about dust.
It does stink to the high heavens when cut, but that goes away in a few days. Coat with a few coats of Salad Bowl finish by General Finishes and have at it.

PS
Size it big enough to cover all of the burners on the stove top. Hint, Hint.
You can thank me in five years. ;)

[Matt Mattingley]

I love IPE. It’s a great ware resistant wood. I love it’s color. I believe it’s also called Brazilian walnut. I get 2 x 4 x 8’ (1.5” x3.5” x 96”)when they go on sale at my local wood vendor. Usually on sale about $35 each. I’m also first in line trying to get the old boards that were used on the boardwalk locally. I have a city close to me that spent A lot of money on a lake boardwalk made from IPE. It’s one of the best species of wood you can use for the worst weather and high traffic with little to no maintenance.

I wouldn’t ever think of using it in the kitchen close to food. It’s just not a application I would use it for. It doesn’t have as much natural oil’s in it to to prevent termites as teak... it’s just hard and dense. It has a very high resistance to rot because of its hardness (Janka scale).

It is very hard on my cutters. I only use carbide or sanders for finishing. If I were to use it for something in the kitchen probably use it for knife block, And insert the knives upside down. Most of the time I use this wood for jigs, fixtures or handles.

If I had the money, I’d use IPE as a hardwood Flooring throughout my entire home.

Edit; I do use IPE for sacrificial lips in my tablesaw and sacrificial fences. In my opinion IPE is on par with aluminum with hardness.... i’ve never tested the two. But I would be interested in those who have.

[John Goodin]

I built a deck too and like Peter I wonder what it would do to knives. Many drill bits were trashed during construction. The best thing... After milling 1600 lineal feet of tongue and groove the dust permanently stained my gray bread a pale shade of pink.

[Lee Schierer]

I wouldn't try to coat the IPE with salad bowl finish or any type of oil. Back when I was working, the company I worked for was trying to develop a wood treatment. We tested some on Ipe and found that the oil didn't penetrate into the wood at all. In our weathering tests we found that the finish only lasted a few days when exposed to rain and then the wood reacted the same as untreated wood. I can't speak for the food allergies, but Ipe is very hard and scratch resistant. I doubt that knives would have much effect.

[glenn bradley]

A beautiful dark wood that is great for design details in small amounts, outdoor projects in large amounts and not near food IMHO. Decorative splines, pegs, pulls, etc.

[Mike Cutler]

I wouldn't try to coat the IPE with salad bowl finish or any type of oil. Back when I was working, the company I worked for was trying to develop a wood treatment. We tested some on Ipe and found that the oil didn't penetrate into the wood at all. In our weathering tests we found that the finish only lasted a few days when exposed to rain and then the wood reacted the same as untreated wood. I can't speak for the food allergies, but Ipe is very hard and scratch resistant. I doubt that knives would have much effect.

Lee
This particular piece of Ipe was glued up in the early 90's. It banged around my shop and the garage for a few years, spent a few more years as a wrought iron table top on the front porch, exposed to all New England weather, and then we used it in the kitchen one day when we ran out of serving surfaces. It's been there ever since, in varying capacities.
It has had the finish on it since about 2002 or so. Prior to that it had no finish on it. It is now back in a wrought iron table base in the kitchen. I cut it to size, maybe 5 years ago and reapplied some General finishes Seal-A-Cell and whatever was left in a can of of old General Finishes Arm-R-Seal to the freshly cut edges. I've never really cared abut what happened to this piece of material. It was scrap wood from a luan pallet, when I made it and it's just kind of always been around.

[Alex Zeller]

With it's high silica content it might be a little rough on the edge of knives if you use it for a cutting board. I believe the purpose of a cutting board is that it gets damaged before the knife. I ended up using Tigerwood for my deck just because it was easier to work with and the look of the wood.

[Darcy Warner]

I have 4 cutting boards with ipe in them. They will suck up some mineral oil, have not killed anyone in my family yet either.

At one point in my work, I was getting two freight shipments of ipe a week.

[Mike Cutler]

Darcy

Back in the late 80's the Marine grade Mahogany Luan was being shipped on pallets made from all types of south American hardwoods. I have pallet runners made out rosewood, leapordwood, jatoba, etc.The pallet slats were mostly Jatoba and Ipe. I had two Rosewood pallet runners I used to jack the car up with for years before I gave them to one of the turners here on the board. Now my dunnage for the cars is Leapordwood.
When we got the first loads of IPE, 5/4 decking, then called Pau Lope, we realized it was the same stuff as the pallet material. Man is that stuff heavy!

[Lee Schierer]

Lee
This particular piece of Ipe was glued up in the early 90's. It banged around my shop and the garage for a few years, spent a few more years as a wrought iron table top on the front porch, exposed to all New England weather, and then we used it in the kitchen one day when we ran out of serving surfaces. It's been there ever since, in varying capacities.
It has had the finish on it since about 2002 or so. Prior to that it had no finish on it. It is now back in a wrought iron table base in the kitchen. I cut it to size, maybe 5 years ago and reapplied some General finishes Seal-A-Cell and whatever was left in a can of of old General Finishes Arm-R-Seal to the freshly cut edges. I've never really cared abut what happened to this piece of material. It was scrap wood from a luan pallet, when I made it and it's just kind of always been around..

I have no doubt that a surface finish can be applied and that it will attach to the surface. My point was the wood is too dense for any finish to penetrate into the wood.

[Jeff Duncan]

Yup, I've used a good amount of Ipe over the years and much of whats been said is true, its hard on tools, dust is terrible, and finishing tricky. I can't see any reason why you couldn't use it for a cutting board though? Your hopefully not eating the cutting board:eek: If it was so toxic that food touching it would make one sick, I'd have been dead a couple decades ago from the amount I've ingested working with it! Oil finishes do work well with this wood which is what you want anyway, plastic finishes aren't good for cutting boards.

I say cut it to size, use a good food safe oil finish on it and try it out. Though the one problem you may run into is moving the thing around.... the stuff is heavy;)

good luck,
JeffD

[Matt Mattingley]

.

I have no doubt that a surface finish can be applied and that it will attach to the surface. My point was the wood is too dense for any finish to penetrate into the wood. most oil’s will penetrate the surface. Hot bacon fat and peanut oil (are two that I know of). Neither are on my toxicity chart. I personally use peanut oil on my own cutting boards. But I still think IPE has better uses.

I personally use a automotive spray on wax if it is a shop tool. Or a paste wax.

[Ted Phillips]

I've used a lot of Ipe for various small projects. I suspect it is not a wood after all - it must be some type of mineral. Tough stuff...

[Darcy Warner]

Finishes will soak into ipe. As time passes they soak in more.

After using over 100k lf of the stuff, I have a good grasp on it.