# Working with Brazilian Walnut (IPE)



## Northerner (Nov 9, 2010)

Brazilian Walnut (aka IPE) is a very hard wood. On the Janka hardness scale the IPE is 3684 , Red Oak is 1290 and American Black Walnut is 1010.

This was my first experience with IPE and I found working with the wood was a bit of a challenge. The wood actually started to smoke during a few deep cuts with the jigsaw. I have never seen this happen with red oak, maple or laminates. Sanding and final shaping was best done with the drum sander on the drill and with smaller drums on a Dremel. Hand sanding/shaping takes forever so I tried to minimize the work. Cutting the top grooves on the forks was accomplished with a cutter bit in the Dremel. Hand sanding these grooves with paper over a small metal shank would have taken forever. Drilling the IPE was interesting too. I snapped a bit when drilling a small pilot hole before using a larger bit. I haven't broke a drill bit in many years. The wood just seemed to grab onto the bit when I was almost through the 1" thickness.

Not all finishes will dry on IPE. I tested some sample pieces of the same wood prior to finishing the frame. Regular Danish Oil would not dry over 24 hrs. After a few days it was still sticky. Urethane gave the same problem. The oily wood seems to hinder drying with many oil finishes. I ended up using Birchwood Casey sealer on the frame and then topcoated with Spar Urethane and all was well. Apparently water based finishes do okay but I have not tried them yet.

Cheers,
Northerner


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## Egregious Ed (Feb 17, 2011)

I've had adventures with ipe too. Yes it eats tool blades on power tools. I actually found I did better with sharp hand tools and a card scraper. If I was to work with it again I would consider using a milling machine since it burned when routed. I got a fantastic rabbit stick out of the waste and the doorsill is still in service after more than 25 years.


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## Performance Catapults (Feb 3, 2010)

The IPE janka score is very deceiving. It's a brittle, exotic wood and tends to chip and flake much easier than say, osage. Straight on, its an extremely hard and dense wood, but just like tempered glass, it has its weakness.


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## mckee (Oct 28, 2010)

Nice work


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## mxred91 (Aug 8, 2010)

Performance Catapults said:


> The IPE janka score is very deceiving. It's a brittle, exotic wood and tends to chip and flake much easier than say, osage. Straight on, its an extremely hard and dense wood, but just like tempered glass, it has its weakness.


Ipe is commonly used to make bamboo backed bows and does well in that application. To Jim's point about it being brittle, I have seen that. My brother made some Ipe arrows. Very heavy, but they all broke in short order. I would be cautious,unless certain the strength is there. The slingshot looks great, very well made.


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## Dan the Slingshot Man (Nov 21, 2010)

I started a Ipe shooter but retired from it, to much work for me. Yours came out great though, may be I should try again.


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## Performance Catapults (Feb 3, 2010)

Yes...you did a nice job on that fork. I have made a solid IPE frame before, a long time ago, and it was the last.


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## jmplsnt (Jan 1, 2010)

Very nice slingshot and the quality is only heightened by my understanding (after your explanation) of just what a pain this wood is to work. I like the lines of your finished piece and am currently working something faintly similar though of the much more user and tool-friendly White Oak.

Dan I would love to see yours if you ever dare to finish it. This wood sounds pretty nasty.


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## flippinout (Jul 16, 2010)

I use this wood quite a bit for the inner laminations on frames. It adds a nice heft, takes fine polish, and being a thin lamination is not hard on tools. No worries about the brittleness of the wood being sandwiched between other layers.

It is easy to find, sustainably harvested, and certainly worthy of working with.

Take note that the grain can be difficult to discern and if making a solid boardcut from it, pay special attention to the grain orientation. I personally would not mess with making a solid board cut from it.

You really brought out the beauty of the wood with your finishing and i know you worked hard to do so.


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## The Gopher (Aug 25, 2010)

Ipe is often used for decking, so it can be found easily. Like Mxred said it is often used for bows. Given that it is very dense but also brittle, if a bow is backed with something like hickory or bamboo a very thin (less than 1" wide) bow can be made from Ipe.

Also be careful of Ipe dust and splinters. Ipe splinters are very painful.


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## Northerner (Nov 9, 2010)

Hi Gopher,

The short IPE board that I have was left over from someone's deck. It has grooves down both sides for a fastener system. A couple of weeks after bringing it inside, the end started to crack so I chopped off the cracked piece and sealed the ends with paraffin and all was well. Someone once mentioned that hardwoods can crack when the humidity level changes.

The IPE sawdust doesn't smell so good. I like the smell of many woods but this isn't one of them. I'm glad it's sealed up with finish









I did read that some people can have an allergic reaction to the wood dust.

Cheers,
Northerner


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## Egregious Ed (Feb 17, 2011)

As someone who has worked with some exotic/tropical woods that caution on exposure needs double exclamation points. Some of them can be very nasty.


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## e~shot (Jun 3, 2010)

Nice job again. I like the design.


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