pumpkineater59

I'm in a need to make wood treads and landing for a spiral staircase. As the upper story will have solid prefinished 3/4", 5" wide Brazilian walnut - ipe, the idea was to purchase the same 3/4", 5" wide ipe unfinished and make the treads.

The question I have is; since this wood is so dense and somewhat oily, can the 5" wide pieces be joined together for wider pieces in the same way as other less oily woods?

I also have a question of finishing (clearcoating) the treads, but I'll post that on the Wood Finishing forum.

Thanks in advance for your help.

/Peter

gregL

You can join oily woods by wiping down the edges with acetone before gluing. I have worked with teak, an oily wood, for many years and successfully glued it this way. Epoxy glue works extremely well. I built a teak dresser in 1975 and it was underwater for 3 weeks during hurricane Katrina. The drawers stayed filled with water for another 2 months before I was able to get it out of the house. Nothing came unglued!

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Every step of any project should be considered your masterpiece if you want the finished product to reflect the quality of your work. Greg Little

cabinetman

Greg is right on about wiping down with acetone. Glue with (2 part epoxy) and clamp as soon after the acetone has flashed off. Carbide tipped blades/bits/cutters...will work best.

phinds

Peter,

I'd appreciate it if you could give me the reference where you saw that "Brazilian walnut" and "ipe" refer to the same wood. I keep track of such things and although I know of numerous woods that have "Brazilian walnut" as an alternate common name, ipe is not one of them, so I'd like to check that out.

Thanks,

Paul

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phinds
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slatron25

Here you go Paul, look under "other comman names"

http://www.advantagelumber.com/ipedecking.htm

It was always my understanding the Ipe just referred to decking although I could be wrong.

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Tim

phinds

Tim,

Thanks for the reference. Ipe (Tabebuia spp.) is a type of wood, decking is a type of construction (I know I'm belaboring the obvious on that one) but the only thing the two have to do w/ each other is that decking is sometimes made from ipe, which, like all woods, also has many other uses. If you're interested, there's a fact sheet on ipe at the URL below my name.

Since as far as I can tell, the only folks who use that designation ("Brazilian walnut" = ipe) are flooring and decking companies, I do not consider it to be valid for general use. Those folks regularly make up their own names for wood; names that are not used anywhere else. They are arbitrary, made up, "sales" names, and I'm confident that this is one of them.

HOWEVER, color me embarrased, because I now see that although my very extensive database of wood names doesn't list that pairing, my web site fact sheet DOES. Oh, well, I never said I was perfect. (I THOUGHT it several times, but apparently I was wrong)

Paul

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phinds
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pumpkineater59

Thank you all for your replies. It sounds as I now can move forward with the treads.

From what I've read, Brazilian walnut can be from two types of trees, ipe and lapacho. Both of them are very hard. The color varies a little. You can find more information if you google brazilian walnut, ipe and lapacho respectively.

Thanks again.

Kenny Tarmack

I've done a few stairs, 2 to be exact, using "ipe" just used regular titebond 2 glue for glue ups, 3 years after the fact, the homeowner has never called us back for any problems. Barry

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HEY GUY WE JUST LANDED......NO, ATL