IPE is the stuff you want!
Tony,
I've got some Ipe that I milled for caprail for the toerail-arks on litlgull, didn't like the profile, (another story..)
They are quite thin and have just been hanging around - totally unchanged - under the boat.
They aren't cracked, broken, bent, split, haven't changed color much either.
Next door on the farm here they have an unshaded deck made from Ipe - 4X4s for the railends - steps... it all recently has been professionally oiled to give the painter some income. But the oil in recent rains I swear has washed off! Nothing soaks into ipe, it has no pores.
But the decking grayed to a light bleached tone and showed the slightest shrinking and weathering imaginable for a totally eposed wood. No splits and the smallest shortest non-connecting surface cracks I've seen. For the time it's been there, 5 or 6 years maybe more, teak would have fried and summer wood caved, and the surface would have had to be sanded to be saved.
Except for the color the Ipe is essentially unchanged since it was put down.
Ipe loves water, is perfect for the marine environment, doesn't rot, doesn't mold stain, nothing eats it. It's other name is ironwood and has the brown tone of teak when kept bright and varnished, and looks like classic teak when gray. Ipe is FOUR times harder than teak, and twice as hard as oak.
I'm still going to use it on the boat for the rub rail, partial caprails in the bow, coaming caps and samson post. It is a filthy wood to mill and rout. It's only bad side. It's harder than hell but tools beautifully. All Ipe on litlgull will be left bare.
I think Ipe is the wood you could use BARE, no maintenance, on your topsides rubrail. And you might give it some thought for your bulwarks.
Your guy might have it if he supplies material for decks. I found a local that has different plank thicknesses.
So you could get your rubrail out of a single thickness - wouldn't consider gluing this stuff, maybe the scarf joint w/ resorcinol, but haven't looked into that.
I bet that's the stuff you've been looking for.
To Glue Ipe or Not To Glue Ipe*
[TONY, this post has grown like mushroom...Tell me to remove it and I will... Really!]
Nobody has ever glued Ipe successfully. Nobody on the woodforums knows how to use Resorcinol
much less how to spell it. Wouldn't attempt gluing pieces together longways.
But why we can't have a rubrail with one strip riding on top of another and mechanically bolted to the hull - it won't matter at all.
In fact you can plan for the future renewable by just replacing the outer piece, leaving the thru-bolted stuff in place!
Bed the bottom strip onto the hull and the second strip on top, both with butyl tape. Bolt in the first, screw on the topper.
Another unknown is whether Ipe eats stainless (acidic) so I'd use bronze - carriage bolts for the inside rail.
Somewhere I've gotten bronze flat-head cut-thread screws that have Frearson heads. Deep, sharp phillips' crosses that uses one special driver for all screw sizes. Frearson cross won't slip the driver bit. Could break the screw. Exposed bronze will patina, lose their bling, and disappear better than s.s.
[EDIT. Jamestown has them, you'll find them cheaper elsewhere.]
Bronze, being softer, will require careful predrilling, a generous hole for the threads and a separate chase for the body, plus a chamfer for the head. Tube butyl might work as a driving lube and guarantee removal later. Jamestown has a special lube with a trick name. I'm looking for oval head frearsons.
Make the 8 to 1 scarf joints diagonal across the face of the strake. So that when we're looking for it, it will be staring at us. Don't want the other scarf that ends up looking like a fish head on top with the thin point exposed. The joint will be a good fit. I would butyl the scarf joint as well, clamp the hell of it to squeeze 95% of the rubber out. And use the same surface screws close to the joint to keep it together.
We have choice of white, gray, and black butyl tape. If we varnish I guess go with black. Against the hull, if white, go with white. Between layers go gray especially if you're keeping the rubrail natural. But we will be squeezing nearly all of the compound out of the joints.
We want to slightly cove out the back of the strakes that bear on the hull to capture the bedding compound. Do it to the one on top too. And chamfer all holes going thru the rail to hold compound so they won't capillary water. Tube rubber can't keep the water out better than butyl, so find ways to keep butyl in the joints. The only downside with butyl is that it stays sticky forever, so if any seam is exposed it will collect hitch-hikers.
You may like tube butyls better, they are a thinner consistency, easier joint squeeze out, compatible with b.tape in my experience, and also tend to skin over better than the tape material which doesn't. Not all tube butyls are created equal. If interested let me know.
That is my methodology for putting Ipe on litlgull. However WEIGHT should be considered. Here are some for durable/moderately durable softwoods. Boardfoot weight (12X12x1 OR 7.5'L x 2"W x 3/4"H - as rubrail example) - DougFir 2.75lbs, SCypress 2.8lbs, YellowCedar 2.7lbs, PortOrford 2.5lbs. Mod durable/durable hardwoods: Elm 3.1, Honduras 3.5, Philippine 3.9, Yellow Pine 3.5/4.2, Teak 4.1, White Oak 4.2, IPE 6lbs.
A 2" wide, 3/4" thick, 7.5 foot long piece of Ipe weighs in at SIX pounds. That's amazing. And may be too much weight to add to a boat on its deck and ends.:eek: Mahagony looks like the right wood for the job, capped with a bit of Ipe ! ! ! [Boardfoot of Aluminum = 13.75lbs. Potatoes 4lbs. SeaWater 5.3lbs.] Of the softwoods AlaskaYellowCedar or PortOrford are nice dense woods to work with, and may be available in your neck of the woods.
RESORCINOL makes a dark purple glue line. Your ipe joint will be tight, maybe it will just disappear. Make up an 8to1 scarf test piece and glue it under controlled comditions. Maybe you're the chosen ONE! And prove to us it can be done!!!
High pressure clamping, strict mix proportions using the gram scale, The right temp - AND add a bisquit or a spline of 1/8" Ipe in edge slots joining the two pieces with the purpose of getting absolute register, less slippin and slidin - and addin more glue surface.
Scrape the faying surfaces - taking thin micro shavings off - just prior to gluing. Right! Literally just befor glue up. Use only denatured alcohol to do a final de-oiling, defingerprinting.
Wouldn't use strong solvents like acetone & toluene which imco can draw oil out of the wood onto the surfaces, actually contaminating them.
If you are in a testing mode I would try Titebond III, for the hell of it, just to see if it works. White Oak too,
Doubt it. Wouldn't use it for the rubrail on the hull. TitebondIII would leave no visible glueline. But it may also get squeezed too thin to be glue.
Rather than a glue, Resorcinol is a chemical reaction, which is why it might not work on a strange wood as dense, oily & acidic as Ironwood.
I'd check it out anyway. Imco none of those 'white' glues are any use for hardwoods anyway. Gorilla Glue is not an option. All my opinion.
Ipe creates dirty, sticky, pervasive, toxic dust. http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge.../..._with_Ipe.html There are two/three more articles [Type Ipe into Search: "Gluing Ipe in Harsh Outdoor Environment" imco ONLY Gene Wengert really knows what he is talking about!]
/ www.Earthpaint.net Blog http://www.earthpaint.net/blog/how.....cal-hardwoods/ Persuasive opinions!
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*That Is the Question. attributed to William Shakescrewgun
Pluck a feather from every passing goose, but follow no one absolutely..
Congrats on daught leaving home!
AND you and your partner getting your own cottage!
The IPE deck next door here has another anomally that you may have alluded to in your post above .... it's a bloody dark and heavy wood.
The wood used as an exposed deck material at another structure on the property here has never been coated and gone grey. The deck next door was, as I said, oiled. The house-keeper for the estate lives there and the sliding glass wall-doors, year round, were kept totally covered inside and out in an attempt to ward off heat generated by the wood! The dark non-porus wood blasts heat like iron metal when the sun beats on it. The owner called in his favorite contractor and most of the decks have now been covered with roof and tinted polycarbonate panels. Good landlord!
You could stand on the deck in the spring sunshine and feel the heat growing underfoot, like standing on a stove burner.
The other grayed-out Ipe deck produces nowhere near the same noticable heat.
So, those varnished trim pieces on the boat in Mike's pic - in hot sun - would be rather uncomfortable, IF they were any darker.
The blond trim looks right-on.
Wonder if there's any varnish that has reflective flecks in its formula, looks the same but bounces some of the sun away?
Tony, It would not be amiss to see befor and afters of your '30's bungalow !
Your next home should have a keel.;)
plum of a cottage, apple of your eye?
Cottage that supports cruising? Ah, yes: Breadfruit!:rolleyes:
