Ipe sapwood

[Bryce]

Bought some relatively light colored ipe' today. I've seen mostly darker bamboo backed ipe' bows.
Does it really matter if it's heartwood or sapwood?
Should I just take it back and find some better stuff?

-Pinecone

[Pat B]

I've never seen ipe sapwood but as strong as ipe is I would imagine the sapwood would be strong too. Give it a try but make the bow slightly bigger than a heartwood bow.

[Gordon]

I've never seen Ipe sapwood either. Are you sure what you have is really Ipe?

[Bryce]

I went to crosscut and pulled out the straightest grained board from the ipe' shelf

[PatM]

Ipe sapwood, like most woods, is whitish. You just have pale Ipe, likely from one of the dozens of types that has paler heartwood.

[Bryce]

[Gordon]

Yep I got an "Ipe" board from Crosscut just like that and every bow that I made from it developed crysals. The real Ipe is the stuff they have out back that's for making decks.

[Bryce]

Perfect, looks like I'm taking this junk back. And getting the real stuff.

[mikekeswick]

Agreed.
I got a board like that once, really straight grain but it took lots of set compared to the 'good stuff'.
There are lots of different woods being sold as ipe now. The stuff you have there is going to be getting morte and more common as time passes.
Ipe is so popular now that they are planting quick growing plantations of this stuff (that you have got).
It's the old supply and demand thing plus most people using ipe don't bend the heck out of it.

[adb]

That looks more like zebrawood.

[mullet]

I've found that the darker and heavier it is the better. And Ipe does have sapwood, like Pat said. At least the two tress in my front yard do.

[toomanyknots]

Yep I got an "Ipe" board from Crosscut just like that and every bow that I made from it developed crysals. The real Ipe is the stuff they have out back that's for making decks.

That looks more like jatoba to me. Which will chrysal very easily I have found. (or zebra wood too, like adb mentioned)

[toomanyknots]

I've found that the darker and heavier it is the better. And Ipe does have sapwood, like Pat said. At least the two tress in my front yard do.

True. For me though, there is a point when enough is enough, haha. I like to settle for good ipe, which is good enough for me, instead of opting for the great ipe if you follow me. I mean, this stuff gets heavy. The stuff thats really really dark, and really heavy, I tend to not want. When I look for ipe, I look for:

- straight grain first,
- then make sure there are no cracks
- then make sure it is decently dark and heavy. As long as it is not light colored and significantly light I am happy. I am making mostly longbows though out of it, so for shorter higher stressed bows I might not be of the same mind.

I look for the same in my core woods. If a bow takes zero set due to dense compression strong woods, but shoots like a dog, I would rather opt for some set, and a better cast, at the end of the day.

[Gordon]

That looks more like jatoba to me.

Yep, that's what I think it was. I couldn't seem to get a proper bow out of that stuff if my life depended on it.

[Badger]

  I just finsihed two ipe bows from wood that looks just like the one you posted. I liked it better than the darker ipe because it had less tendency to chrysal. I found a stack of side bed rails a furniture comapny had thrown out. I had no idea what kind of wood it was and after making the bow I still didn't know what kind of wood. It was heavier than water, the only wood that had a similar smell was ipe so I called it ipe. Ipe sap wood is very similar to osage sap wood.