# Comfort Pencil in Ipe



## rocky1 (Oct 6, 2016)

Way back awhile ago I picked up a MFRB of Ipe from @Bill Hatton just because. Wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but it looked interesting. Cut a piece a few weeks ago for use on another project that changed directions, and it didn't get used as intended. In cleaning the shop last night I decided to try it on a pen and see what it was like.

While I don't think it'll ever move to the top of my list of fun woods to work, appearance wise I must say it definitely has some promise. Trying to round this stock out was interesting to say the least, and that was with the new carbide turning tool. It lived up to it's reputation of being dense, hard to turn, suspect it would be a little hard on cutting edges on tools, if not using carbide. Once rounded out it turned pretty decent, however it seems to be real directionally preferential. It turns one way real nice, the other it likes to rip and tear grain real easy. Enough so that it was easier to turn up hill the direction it wanted to play, than it was to turn down hill the direction it didn't. Hence the very skinny top end of this pencil, since I discovered it was not an issue with the turning tool, it was in fact a characteristic of this new wood I was playing with, when I was getting down to finishing passes with the skew.

Sanding, it wasn't bad; coarser grits easily moved a lot of wood, finer grits polished it up to shiny rather quickly, suggesting it's a bit oily by nature.

Seems to have decent character to it, I was actually kinda surprised as this was simply a plain old piece of Ipe decking, nothing special about it. It does have decent chatoyance to it as well, so it's kinda interesting in the light, and that's even in my not so brightly lit shop.

*Next time...* I'll probably knock the corners off the blank on the bandsaw to make rounding the stock out a little easier. And, figure out which way the grain wants to play nice before getting down to finish cuts. But, given this one's appearance, I'm pretty sure there'll be more.

_And, in case any of you looks at this pencil and says, "Hmmmm... That squishy part on the bottom looks short!??" Not sure what line I was looking at when I cut the bottom end of that damn blank, but I already had it pressed together when I discovered I'd measured wrong, and it was easier to shorten the squishy, than it was to disassemble and turn it a 1/4" shorter at a quarter after midnight!_

Reactions: Like 7 | EyeCandy! 1


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## Tony (Oct 6, 2016)

I like it Rocky! I've got some Ipe, haven't done anything with it though...... Tony

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Ray D (Oct 6, 2016)

Very nice. If you happen to be a turkey hunter, it makes a real nice striker for pot calls.

Reactions: Informative 2


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## DKMD (Oct 6, 2016)

Never messed with ipe, but it looks a little like koa to me. Nicely done!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Nature Man (Oct 6, 2016)

Very nice! Had not seen Ipe turned before. Believe it may be at the top of the chart for hardness. Chuck

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## rocky1 (Oct 6, 2016)

Nature Man said:


> Very nice! Had not seen Ipe turned before. Believe it may be at the top of the chart for hardness. Chuck



Had heard it was really hard before, and it was plenty tough rounding it out, but beyond that... .

It was definitely hard Chuck; wanted to bite and catch both directions while rounding it. Once rounded, it was kinda like turning a good solid piece of Walnut one direction; going back the other way kinda like turning Spruce, except I believe the Ipe might have ripped and torn worse than Spruce. It was really strange stuff! Honestly, pulling into an up hill cut, it was just as clean and smooth; no suggestion of wanting to gouge or bite at all. Turn around and go back down that hill, like one's supposed to, and it was NOT good!! Adjusted my rest, thinking I had it set a little too high; tried rolling my cutter a little, thinking a more shearing cut would work better; didn't matter what I did, it worked great one direction, gouged and tore the other. 

Sanding... It worked nice; I was truly surprised there. Expected it to be a pain in the ass to sand, being hard and oily. It didn't plug paper or Abranet up like most oily woods, wasn't bad about stripping grit even when being pretty aggressive, and turning at slightly higher speeds like most hard woods do. Material moved good when working it; it sanded up quick. I've sanded pine that was far worse than this stuff was in both respects.

I may have just hit a friendly piece, I don't know, but my initial impression of it was not at all bad. It was actually pretty decent to work with once you knock the corners off the blank and figure out which direction it wants to play nice.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Bill Hatton (Oct 8, 2016)

That looks great! How did you do in the Hurricane? I lost most of my banana trees and some limbs but house was ok. I am heading up past you tomorrow to go to Ga for a week.


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## rocky1 (Oct 8, 2016)

Yeah, I sorta thought it did too; was kinda impressed with it honestly. Didn't look like much when I was turning it, but when I finished it, it turned out pretty sharp.

As far as the hurricane, it took maybe an hour to clean up the limbs and leaves riding the mower Bill. Had one limb down that was to big for the mower to chew up, that I had to get off for, and that was it. Hermine was way worse on our end. Didn't get nearly enough rain out of it unfortunately; we're bone dry, and I was hoping for 5 - 6 inches, got 1 1/2.


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## ripjack13 (Oct 8, 2016)

Very cool Rocky. I love ipe!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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