Sometime ago someone asked about a yellow dust producing wood, which turned out being Teak. At the time, I suggested Ipê (Tabebuia Spp.), a South American wood.
Ipê wood is practically impervious to rot and to woodworms. Due to its high oils content it doesn't glue well. It requires pre-drilling with a larger diameter drill than usual for applying screws (I once pre-drilled too small a hole - but one which would be plenty large enough in any softer wood - and broke a stainless steel screw inside an Ipê slat - never managed to take it out.
Ipê is also quite heavy, with a specific gravity higher than 1,0.
It is very hard, blunts tools easily (carbide tools suggested), and on cutting produces a very fine yellow dust which is toxic and may cause dermatitis. A sliver in the hand is very painful and often ends in infection.
Not an easy wood to work, but due to its resistance to rot, I have used it on shower slats. Well, I understandably use it as little as I can, but today I needed to plane the edge of an 18mm thick slat to make it fit. I needed to remove only about 3 or 4 mm, I have no power tools for so thin a removal (besides, using power tools inside the home with that pervading dust would be crazy), I felt a handsaw would be a little risky, so a handplane it wod have to be.
I could not take shavings of over .15mm (about .006inch), as it required too much effort and my "workbench" is a bit flimsy even when propped against a big cupboard full of books. All the time, that yellow dust seemed to ooze from the pores of the wood and got everywhere. It is a happy thing that my skin does not seem to be overly sensitive to this kind of allergenics, as in a matter of minutes my plane was overflowing with it.
The pictures below were taken at about 1/3 of the completion of the work. After that I gave up handling the camera, as anything I touched turned yellow.
Then, when you finish, everything has to be cleaned by carefully brushing (so that the dust doesn't go somewhere else) - no way I would use the household vaccum to clean that mess - then dusted with a damp rag with alcohol, and then finally vaccumed. The wood is treated likewise. The plane is taken apart, cleaned with alcohol and then oiled, and the iron needs to be honed - after just removing a 3mm thickness on an 18mm thick slat. I will leave that for tomorrow.
So - I hate working Ipê! And I have one more slat to finish!!!
Ipê wood is practically impervious to rot and to woodworms. Due to its high oils content it doesn't glue well. It requires pre-drilling with a larger diameter drill than usual for applying screws (I once pre-drilled too small a hole - but one which would be plenty large enough in any softer wood - and broke a stainless steel screw inside an Ipê slat - never managed to take it out.
Ipê is also quite heavy, with a specific gravity higher than 1,0.
It is very hard, blunts tools easily (carbide tools suggested), and on cutting produces a very fine yellow dust which is toxic and may cause dermatitis. A sliver in the hand is very painful and often ends in infection.
Not an easy wood to work, but due to its resistance to rot, I have used it on shower slats. Well, I understandably use it as little as I can, but today I needed to plane the edge of an 18mm thick slat to make it fit. I needed to remove only about 3 or 4 mm, I have no power tools for so thin a removal (besides, using power tools inside the home with that pervading dust would be crazy), I felt a handsaw would be a little risky, so a handplane it wod have to be.
I could not take shavings of over .15mm (about .006inch), as it required too much effort and my "workbench" is a bit flimsy even when propped against a big cupboard full of books. All the time, that yellow dust seemed to ooze from the pores of the wood and got everywhere. It is a happy thing that my skin does not seem to be overly sensitive to this kind of allergenics, as in a matter of minutes my plane was overflowing with it.
The pictures below were taken at about 1/3 of the completion of the work. After that I gave up handling the camera, as anything I touched turned yellow.
Then, when you finish, everything has to be cleaned by carefully brushing (so that the dust doesn't go somewhere else) - no way I would use the household vaccum to clean that mess - then dusted with a damp rag with alcohol, and then finally vaccumed. The wood is treated likewise. The plane is taken apart, cleaned with alcohol and then oiled, and the iron needs to be honed - after just removing a 3mm thickness on an 18mm thick slat. I will leave that for tomorrow.
So - I hate working Ipê! And I have one more slat to finish!!!
