Awesome Driftwood Find

[Matthew Hutchinson477]

Evening folks,Have I got an interesting one for you tonight! Not exactly about sawing and drying in the traditional sense but close enough. Out at the lake this weekend I found probably the coolest piece of driftwood I've ever seen. Turns out someone in the neighborhood just built a dock out of ipe (did I mention it's a wealthier neighborhood?) so while walking by the coves I stumbled upon this board that I'm pretty sure is ipe. It was above the water line so it feels pretty dry but it was covered in mud and impregnated with silt. Still straight and square though. I've gathered that it is tough to work with (especially with hand tools...which is all I have) but it looks beautiful so I'm pretty excited.So now onto business. I brushed it off as best I can but I need to figure out how to get all this silt and dirt out of it. I could power wash it but I don't want it to get any wetter than it already may be. My moisture meter is a POS so I'm not exactly sure how dry it is. Any suggestions on cleaning? Thanks!

[Cody Colston]

Go ahead and power wash it. You need to get the grit out of it and the water you introduce to the outer part of the wood will dry pretty quickly.

Nice find.

[Matthew Hutchinson477]

The power washing really cleaned it up. Not quite as grey and weathered as I expected.




Now for the next question, though maybe it should be posted somewhere else. What are those little black dots that are impregnated in the wood? I thought they were just spots at first but they're actually little...somethings...they look like little peppercorns or some sort of bead blasting media. Any ideas?

[Paul Follett]

Are they metalic, like lead shot perhaps?

[William Adams]

Rocks/sand be like.

I’ve seen similar in boards I’ve picked up off roadsides.

I use a Stanley RB-5 on them, but doubt that will work well on Ipê.

[Matthew Hutchinson477]

Nope, they appear to be organic. I was thinking some species of aquatic snail or some insect. I was hoping it would be something commonly seen so that someone would know what it is.

[John TenEyck]

Doesn't look like Ipe' to me. What's it look like wet? Should be red/brown.

John

[Matthew Hutchinson477]

Kinda dark brown when wet, just a darker version of the 2nd photo. Still looks weathered but not as grey when wet. But the ipe dock nearby that I think it came from is old enough that all its boards are pretty grey as well.