Ipe for resoling wooden plane?

[Alex Yeilding]

I read Bob Smalser's excellent write-up on rehabbing wooden planes here Now I'm inspired to see if my old transitional smoother and woodie jointer can do more than collect dust.

I have a little bit of ipe in the shop, and that seems like an ideal wood for this purpose -- tough, hard, and somewhat oily. I'll obviously give my sharpening stones a good workout while chiseling the mouth, but other than that challenge, are there other factors that say this is a dumb idea? Obviously, authenticity to the original is not a consideration.

What about glue? Bob recommends epoxy. Would UF (plastic resin) work nearly as well? (Or polyurethane or other glue?) If there is a strong reason to use epoxy in preference to others, I will; it's just not part of my usual supplies. I would plan to wipe the ipe down with acetone just before gluing.

Thanks for any advice.

[Sam Yerardi]

Because of the oiliness, I would wipe it down several times with acetone before gluing. A lot of luthiers will do this with rosewood. As far as glue, my vote is for epoxy.

[Chris Padilla]

Poly (i.e. Gorilla Glue) is suppposed work well on oily woods.

[Steve knight]

best to just freshly sand it or plane it before gluing it. it works better then wiping it down. a good epoxy should work fine or titebond 3. ipe is fairly oily but it gets nice and slick I have made a few thousand planes with ipe soles.

[Chuck Hamman]

I built a plane entirely from ipe. I had to laminate 4/4 stock to get the thickness I needed. I sanded the surfaces lightly and used TB3 to glue them up. Worked well. Ipe is heavy; really gave a nice weight to the plane.

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/f...3pjackside.jpg

Regards,
-Chuck

[Alex Yeilding]

best to just freshly sand it or plane it before gluing it. it works better then wiping it down. a good epoxy should work fine or titebond 3. ipe is fairly oily but it gets nice and slick I have made a few thousand planes with ipe soles.

Thanks, Steve. It is great to get a voice of LOTS of experience! On your site, you mention gluing up the planes with Gorilla glue. Above you recommend epoxy or TB3. Have you changed? I've never heard of any bonding problems with your planes, so presumably polyurethane glue works fine, even if you now use one of those others?

You mention an oil soak for your planes to help control moisture exchange since the glued up woods have different expansion factors. Should I be considering this? Both the plane and the wood I will use for the sole are well-acclimated to my shop and my shop is in a fairly controlled environment, so I think I am okay without that?

[Alex Yeilding]

Beautiful plane, Chuck! Frankly, I have never thought of ipe as a particularly attractive wood. Maybe I need to change how I view it, because it sure looks nice in this photo. How did you finish it, if you did?

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Poly (i.e. Gorilla Glue) is suppposed work well on oily woods.

It's supposed to. In fact it was formulated precisely for oily tropical woods in high humidity.

I however, have not found the stuff to own up to any of the advertising.

[Mike Henderson]

It's supposed to. In fact it was formulated precisely for oily tropical woods in high humidity.

I however, have not found the stuff to own up to any of the advertising.

Amen.

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[Steve knight]

when I tested gorilla glue years ago it worked pretty well on oily woods. but when I tested cutoffs in the last few years the joint seemed weaker.
after seeing that titebond 3 worked well on oily woods I tested it and it did better. If my memory is good gorilla glue made a better joint back then then the titebond 3 does not but I can't remember for sure.
here is a test I did between gorilla and titebond 3. using the same pieces of wood to make it really accurate. I freshly milled the wood dampened both sides (that is better for oily woods and gorilla glue and glued them up and left them clamped for 24 hours)
the padouk was about the same with both woods having the wood break before the joint. the ipe the joint with gorilla glue was pretty much a clean break on the joint the titebond joint had some wood left on the joint. the cocobolo had only a little bit of wood left on the joint with titebond and none with gorilla.

[Chuck Hamman]

Thanks Alex.
Ipe (Brazilian walnut) is actually very attractive. I haven't used it to any extent; I know it is popular for flooring. It would make beautiful furniture, but heavy!

The finish is just a couple of coats of BLO. The iron is from Ron Brese.

-Chuck