# Ipe indoor furniture



## Wineworker (Jul 24, 2013)

Anybody have any experience finishing Ipe? I am completely new to the wood, but had a bunch given to me for free and decided to make a double pedestal sliding dinning room table from it. It is very hard, but I have very good quality tooling, and making the table was actually not that hard… Now comes the finishing. I tried Behlen Rockhard table top urethane varnish, and it simply didn't stick. It would never dry and remained tacky. Any help?


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## ClintSearl (Dec 8, 2011)

I finished this ipe table with "Cabot Australian Timber Oil", left in the hot sun for a week before bringing it inside. The oil cured well. I also did a small test piece in Bona Mega waterborne floor finish, which turned out great. That or Varathane waterborne poly floor finish is what I'd use for a film finish.


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## Barbancourt (Sep 12, 2012)

I don't have any experience with ipe, but you can try wiping it down with mineral spirits before applying the finish. If a wood is naturally oily, sometimes the oil based finishes have a hard time curing. Sometimes, you have to wipe it down and then seal it with shellac before you get a good cure. I would try these on a scrap and see how it turns out.


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## Hammerthumb (Dec 28, 2012)

I agree. Seal it with de-waxed shellac and then finish with waterborne poly. Done a lot of Ipe floors that way. If I had a dining room table to finish, I woud use that method. Furniture that I have made with Ipe that do not need as much protection (ie. picture frames), I just use BLO and wax as the wood will buff out to a very nice luster without a surface finish.


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## Wineworker (Jul 24, 2013)

Thanks for the help everyone! I tried washing it down with acetone prior to the BRH, it still didn't stick. I did not try mineral spirits though. I have heard that the Cabot ATO works. I tried a few scrap pieces with good old fashion brushing lacquer, and it seemed to work great, it stuck anyway ;-) Not sure if it will have any longevity though… Thoughts? Hammerthumb, that seems like a great method, I will have to trial a piece. After a bit of reading up on Ipe, now I am concerned that the glue joints may not even hold! The whole top is T&G, and others have posted that the oil prevents the glue from holding. There is no fasteners in the whole thing, it all T&G, M&T, and dowels. It may just fall apart anyway!


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## Purrmaster (Sep 1, 2012)

I've been able to glue and finish ipe as long as I wiped it down with naphtha first. The good news is that the extreme hardness of ipe and the natural oils make it quite tough stuff


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