Working with Ipe

[Brian Akers]

So I picked up some free reclaimed hardwood the other day and cut the ends off to take a look since they were rather dirty.
Looks like purple heart and Ipe?
I realize Ipe can be difficult to work with. So I guess my question(s) is:
Is it going ro ruin my blades?
Is it worth picking up more of it for free/super cheap?

[Ken Seiler]

When we built our house about 14 yrs ago, we used Ipe for the deck and then also on the boat dock. It won't ruin your saw blades but if you do a lot of cutting, you will probably have to have them sharpened. Don't know what it would do to jointer/planer blades but I think it would dull them in a hurry. Be sure and wear a dust mask/respirator when cutting Ipe. The dust will be extremely fine.

Ken

[Chris Padilla]

It does look like ipe and it isn't any harder to work than any other wood. It all benefits from sharp tooling.

When cut, the ipe produces a very yellowish/orangish sawdust (that seems to get everywhere and stick to everything!). I just built a whole bench/arbor/pergola thingy in my backyard using 5/4 decking material. It went well and looks nice. It wasn't any harder to work than anything else.

[Lee Schierer]

Ipe will dull high speed steel blades very quickly. Be sure to use carbide tipped blades and cutters.

[Brian Akers]

Just have regular blades for my jointer and planer...

Ipe will dull high speed steel blades very quickly. Be sure to use carbide tipped blades and cutters.

[Mike Cutler]

Don't be afraid of either species. They are tropical hardwoods that are dense, but they are worth the effort.
Carbide tipped tools are the only way to go, but unless you plan to run a couple thousand board feet through your planer and joiner, you should be fine.
Be prepared to clean the cutter heads, possibly do a light retouch honing when you're done.
I've put the Purple Heart through my mortised, but the ipe was just a bit much for a bench top mortised. It did it, but there was quite a bit of re-sharpening during the process.
Bottom line, Get all you can for free to super cheap. You won't regret it.

[Erik Christensen]

for what you are saving on wood you can afford to get a set of new blades or get the existing ones re-sharpened. I found Ipe to cut just fine with carbide blades but it is a challenge to shape & I had a lot of chipout. for me the biggest issue was the dust from Ipe - it is nasty stuff and the only wood that even with festool sanders I had to wear a dust mask or else I felt like crap after

[Brad Shipton]

Unless building a deck or a truck trailer I would not go back for more IPE. Purpleheart, yes, but IPE is not a lot of fun to work with. IPE glues poorly, cannot drive any nails thru it, and most of the stock is intended for decks, so it is not always seasoned the same as we woodworkers are used to. Wait till the crap dries out, and you get a few slivers. Great fun.

[William Adams]

Ipê is a bow wood, so if you know any bowyers, and if the wood is straight-grained, they might welcome it.

It cuts beautifully w/ sharp, good-quality carbide tools, and I’m looking forward to making some bows and other things once the expansion kit for my ShapeOko 3 arrives.

[Mike Hollingsworth]

I hate Ipe almost as much as termites do.

[Terry Wawro]

I have a love / hate relationship with IPE. I love how it dense it is. How it holds up to weather and does not need to be maintained to last a long time.

I hate that it is so hard that you have to pre-drill before using any fasteners or it will crack. I hate that the grain is so fine, dense and brittle that just working with it gives you needle thin splinters. I hate that it weights so much.

[John TenEyck]

I used over 1200 lin ft of Ipe' building my deck and planter boxes last summer. I didn't find it harder to work than any other dense hardwood. I routed a lot of edges and even jointed and planed a little of it without undue wear on my HSS knives. The chop saw blade was still cutting fine by the end of the job but I had it sharpened because it was 5 years old at that point. The dust sticks to everything, as Chris mentioned. It doesn't seem to bother me but some folks are very sensitive to it. As was mentioned, Ipe' is not dry when you buy it, although the stuff you get might be depending up where it was stored. It's fine for exterior projects as is but if you want to build furniture with it, you will need to sticker and let it dry a good long time first. Gorilla glue seems to stick fine to it.

John

[Ted Phillips]

I helped a friend build a deck with Ipe once. Once. Never again. I used an N95 mask, but the dust had me sneezing and wheezing all day. And the splinters are nasty. On the other hand, it made a beautiful deck that is low maintenance...

Purpleheart is an interesting wood to work with. Hard as a rock and a little "chippy". But it works well if you have sharp tools. Finishes to a high polish. Just don't expect the bright purple color to stay long - it fades to a purplish brown after time. You can Google some tips for how to finish it to retain the color some.

TedP