IPE, should I?

[lebhuntfish]

I ran across a guy that has some IPE and a piece of tiger wood. They are decking boards, 1"x6"x10'if has 3 pieces of IPE and one piece of tiger wood. He shot of a price of 200. Mr said he would do some trading.

My questions are what should I look for in the boards for any building? And, are they worth it?

 

 

[mullet]

I don't know about the Tiger wood but it sounds a little high dollar for the Ipe.

[lesken2011]

I just got in some tiger wood from the same place I get my ipe and massuranduba which are all decking woods. Eddie is right. That seems a little high. I get mine cheaper even with shipping. You might try googling ipe for sale and see what you come up with.

[PatM]

Tigerwood is Goncalo Alves.   Price is way too steep.

[autologus]

If you guys buy Ipe and have it shipped to you who do you use?  I know there are restrictions on non-vendor links so if you dont mind PM me the information I would love to give Ipe a try but it is not available locally here, I guess if you want to build a deck in Arkansas you build it out of pressure treated pine.   

Grady

[adb]

Yah, the guy is WAY over charging for the ipe. For 5/4 or 6/4 ipe X 7' long, I'm paying around $40 per board. Shipping wood like this would be very expensive. You pretty much have to pick it up yourself.

[lebhuntfish]

I was concerned that it was a little high especially since I know it wasn't money out of his pocket. It was left overs from a deck he built. Nice fella, so I will do some haggling with him and see what we come up with. If I can get it cheaper, do you think I should try it for a bow?

[Parnell]

Is it made out of gold?   

[Parnell]

$40 for the board is about right, I'd say.

[lesken2011]

The last few boards I got were so straight and clean (the way I requested them) I ordered the last couple in 2Xs which makes them 1.5 inches wide and I rip them from the edge. I also got the last couple of boards cut in half since I am trying out a take down design and working more with tri-lams.

[toomanyknots]

$40 for the board is about right, I'd say.

For me, I buy my boards about 5 3/4" wide by 8' long, and 3/4" true dimension thick for 40 bucks. If they are 1" true dimensions thick (5/4 or whatever it is called) they jump to about 60 a board. I only buy the 1" thick if I am doing a heavy thick "something" backed ipe warbow. For all other purposes, especially trilams, 3/4" is the way to go for me. I can get 100 lbs at 32" by backing a 3/4" board with a 1/8" hickory backing (my 100 ipe warbows will only be about 1 1/8" wide by 7/8" thick). I buy from a lumber company that supplies decking stuff. I saw some in woodcraft the other day, they were trying to rip people off too, . I would suggest to leave it be, the grain doesn't look great (not too easy to tell in the pictures though), it's better to get a board with straight clean grain. If you look around, maybe using google maps, you can typically find some one who sells decking stuff that carries ipe. Craigslist is a good place too to look too.

[lebhuntfish]

Thanks  for the good information guys, I'm talked to him today for a bit. He said he wasn't sure what they were worth he just through a number out there. I asked him he I could come inspect them better with more info and time. He also agreed to 20 a board on the phone. I will let you guys know if I get a good one. Because I will need help building a bow out of it. Thanks, hopefully I can pick one up this weekend if everything works out. Patrick

[Alpinbogen]

The grain in 2nd pic is not worthy of bow wood.  Pass, period.  It will feather check, backed, or explode, unbacked.

[PatM]

Isn't the second pic an end cut?

[lebhuntfish]

Yes it is PatM.