Ipe

Family

Wood

Category

wood

Species

Handroanthus spp.

Density

1 g/cm³ · 1000 kg/m³

Species measured

Ipe (Tabebuia spp.)

Specific gravity

0.92

Janka side hardness

3,680 lbf · 16,369 N

Modulus of rupture

25,400 psi · 175.1 MPa

Modulus of elasticity

3.14 ×10⁶ psi · 21.65 GPa

Source: USDA Forest Service, Wood Handbook — Wood as an Engineering Material (FPL-GTR-190, 2010), Table 5–5b, for clear straight-grained specimens at 12% moisture content. The grey figures are converted at 1 lbf = 4.448 N, 1 psi = 6.895 kPa and 1 GPa = 145,038 psi; the inch-pound numbers are the published ones. Specific gravity is oven-dry mass over volume at 12% moisture content, so it sits about 12% below the working density at the top of this page (0.92 × 1.12 ≈ 1.03 g/cm³). The two come from different sampling programmes, so a few species differ by more than that.

Origin

Central and South America

Appearance

Olive-brown to near black, fine texture, sometimes with lighter streaks

Working

Dense and abrasive — carbide tooling and pilot holes are the rule. It is specified outdoors for durability, not for ease of working.

Unlike the USDA figures above, these lines are not measurements: they carry no units and no single source. They describe how the timber is generally found to behave rather than what it is guaranteed to do — read them as the consensus of the trade, not as a specification.

• Density is for air-dried stock at about 12% moisture content
• Blunts ordinary cutting edges — carbide tooling is the practical minimum
• Sawdust is a respiratory irritant; extract at the tool

Dressed sizes are the same for every species — a 2x4 is 1-1/2 x 3-1/2 in in oak as much as in spruce. What changes is the weight, and that is derived here from ipe's density of 1 g/cm³.

Which tools work a material is a property of the family (Wood), not of the individual species — so this list is the same on every wood page, and changes when the tool data changes rather than when this paragraph does.