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Ipe for needles?

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Bmackerel

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There’s a bunch of ipe decking off cuts in the dumpster at work. Not exactly sure of the size but looks thick enough for some needles. Stuffs hard as rock though. Any one have experience turning it? Should I grab a bunch before it’s hauled or is it to hard to work with?

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Man, I'd grab it for sure. I know some plugs were made of mahagony, and this stuff is pretty dense. Be worth a try and if it doesn't work out, you can always burn them in your fire pit. My son used to have cutoffs of pine or fir from siding, I took those and made beacoup bluebird boxes. Birds loved them! 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, Incase anyone else comes across some ipe, it’s turns pretty nice. Drilling was a little tough but not too bad. I think it’s gonna be a great wood for needles. It sinks slowly with out adding any weight, so could be great for slow sinking needles, or add some weight and make fast sinking. I plan to do both

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I made a few needles out of it several years back. They worked well and caught..but for me I don't particularly like working with it. It's very hard and takes its toll on your tooling. I also had a mild reaction to it.. made my skin itch. It is a beautiful wood though.

Edited by lazzyone
Living the dream... one sick day at a time!!
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Hi All,

 

There has been couple of wood species that I've played with in the past to make a sinking needle.

Ipe being one but quickly learned that Ipe is one of the worse wood to work with as they dulls the edge quickly and hard to make a good finish due to chips and splits.

Another with very similar characteristics (esp. density, hardness) is called as "bullet wood (Massaranduba)" and much nicer to work with (tools well) and easy to have a reasonably nice finish. It is almost impervious to water damage, generally stronger (modulus strength) than Ipe.

One major issue is the oil content in the wood which makes it a great marin bearing material in ship building but also make it hard to glue, including epoxy. They have special epoxy for it but not sure about paint.

It can be fished without any surface treatment and will last very long but I am still wanting to put some different colors as well.

 

"I am hoping maybe someone with more knowledge on paints can chip in on this."

 

Below is a chart of characteristics found from wood database site, including Hard Maple for comparison if you are interested...

They are not common but can be found as higher end decking, ship building and heavy construction area.

 

Common Name(s)

 Ipe, Brazilian Walnut, Lapacho

 Bulletwood, Massaranduba

Hard Maple, Sugar Maple, Rock Maple

Scientific Name

 Handroanthus spp. (formerly placed in the Tabebuia genus)

 Manilkara bidentata

Acer saccharum

Distribution

 Tropical Americas (Central and South America); also farmed commercially

 Caribbean, Central and South America

Northeastern North America

Tree Size

 100-130 ft (30-40 m) tall, 2-4 ft (.6-1.2 m) trunk diameter

 100-150 ft (30-46 m) tall, 2-4 ft (.6-1.2 m) trunk diameter

80-115 ft (25-35 m) tall, 2-3 ft (.6-1.0 m) trunk diameter

Average Dried Weight

 69 lbs/ft3 (1,100 kg/m3)

 67 lbs/ft3 (1,080 kg/m3)

44 lbs/ft3 (705 kg/m3)

Specific Gravity (Basic, 12% MC)

 .91, 1.10

 .85, 1.08

.56, .71

Janka Hardness

 3,510 lbf (15,620 N)

 3,130 lbf (13,920 N)

1,450 lbf (6,450 N)

Modulus of Rupture

 25,660 lbf/in2 (177.0 MPa)

 27,870 lbf/in2 (192.2 MPa)

15,800 lbf/in2 (109.0 MPa)

Elastic Modulus

 3,200,000 lbf/in2 (22.07 GPa)

 3,344,000 lbf/in2 (23.06 GPa)

1,830,000 lbf/in2 (12.62 GPa)

Crushing Strength

 13,600 lbf/in2 (93.8 MPa)

 12,930 lbf/in2 (89.2 MPa)

7,830 lbf/in2 (54.0 MPa)

Shrinkage

Radial 5.9%

Tangential 7.2%

Volumetic 12.4%

T/R Ratio 1.2

 Radial  6.7%,

Tangential 9.4%

Volumetric 16.8%

T/R Ratio 1.4

Radial: 4.8%

Tangential: 9.9%

Volumetric: 14.7%

T/R Ratio: 2.1

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