Thread: 8/8 Spanish point scalloped back Henkels in Ipe

I had gotten an email wanting to know if I have ever made scales from Ipe wood. I had never heard of Ipe and had none in my wood pile. So he sent me a small plank and I resawed a dozen sets from it. Ipe is a hard wood, but what makes it difficult to work is that is brittle. Most exotic woods are hard but they also contain a lot of natural oils. This Ipe was a decking plank, hard, dense, tight grain but brittle. Out of 5 sets I cut, 2 were usable. The other chunked when I routed the edges. Once I had a good set I put a Dutch oil finish on them and let them cure overnight. The next evening I went to scale the blade only to realize that this 8/8 is a good quarter inch longer than its 7/8 sibling. The scales were to short, so I had to fire up the equipment and cut another set but extend them ¼ inch more than my standard cut.

But in the end, I got a good set. Ipe is relatively bland in figuring. This piece of stock was, after all, a leftover wood deck board. I did luck out and have one small section that had some figuring in the wood. It reminds me of walnut in its workability and over all appearance. It turned out pretty good I think. I have noticed that wood not finished in my usual epoxy resin, is much more pliable. These scales bent and formed quite easily, normally I have to use a small clamp to compress the wood around the spacer pin.

Very nice looking!!! Beautiful work as usual...

Oops. That third photo is of a different razor. It did not magickly morph into a Dorko in rose wood.

Got the razor back yesterday. Looks great!

Thanks,

Shawn

Cannon,

Looks super!

I finished doing a Henckels 8/8 last week-end. I thought I was supposed to be making scales, not an axe handle!

That blade is friggin big!


v/r

Allen

Glad you like it. I need to try a set of those in Epoxy to see what it looks like. I was looking around to get more information on Ipe. It looks like my observation about the walnut like properties was pretty correct. Ipe is Brazilian walnut.

Those 8/8 blades are huge. The supply of them is drying up so I ordered one as an investment piece.

FYI, I forgot to put the original razor box in the box. I do have it, if you want me to drop it in the mail let me know.