Ironwood scales

T

The_Dave

Joined
Dec 5, 2008
Messages
181
I was reading up on Ironwood and its care when I came upon a few claims that Ironwood dust is toxic enough to bother folks. If you've worked with it personally, have you found this to be true?

And since I'm here, how exactly DO I finish Ironwood?

Thanks again,
Dave
 
All sawdust can eventually cause health issues, especially quickly if you happen to be allergic. Ironwood is very dense and oily, so doesn't really need stabilizing or much treatment after you get it sanded to high grit.
 
Yes, I've worked w/ it and it can cause problems . More than just allergy like symptions . DM
 
Ironwood, AKA cocobolo is beautiful. I worked with it many years ago in highschool shop class. My teacher had a cache of it up in the rafters that he'd let some of us use for some projects.

He advised us early on that inhaling the dust would cause an allergic type reaction and that it got worse the more you did it. I.E., the first time you might not feel it, or only feel it a little. The next time more, and so on until you were super sensitized to it and got a bad reaction right away.

I recall oiling my finished pieces with a satin finishing oil, but I can't recall the brand. It was something we used a lot in that shop on wood when we wanted a satin (non-shiny) finish.

Brian.
 
Ironwood and Cocobolo are two different woods.

The Dave , one of the things about Ironwood is that it will play hell on your tools like nothing else ! It will eat your paper and go thru drill bits and saw blades. Like was said , any dust , anything other than clean air for that matter id bad for your lungs.

The only wood/dust off the top of my head that can bother peoples skin and such is Cocobolo.
 
Just to clarify, what most knifemakers consider ironwood (olneya tesota) is not cocobolo (dalbergia retusa). Both are hard, and take a great finish. Neither are good for breathing, especially some coocbolo.

Use a respirator, or work the stuff wet (which will stain your hands). I get it all smooth with 220-grit SiC sandpaper then move to 3M finishing paper. The finishing paper runs from 400x to 8000x. Desert ironwood is one of the few woods that you can actually take to 8000 and still see improvement. When it's shiny, wipe a light coat of oil (it doesn't really matter what) on the surface to bring out the color. If there are any voids or cracks, fill them with CA before finishing.

attachment.php


Phillip
 
There's also a difference between desert ironwood and caribbean ironwood, also known as lignum vitae or guaiacum officinale. This was used for carving, carvers' mallets, and various marine applications until it fell onto the endangered list. Lignum vitae sinks in water, so it's quite dense, and works well with carbide tools. Watch for resin buildup on the trailing edge of rotary tools.

I've used it for a few handles. finish to 1000 grit, then buff. Polishing must be done carefully: hotspots will carbonize the resin and cloud the finish.

If the sawdust smells like caramel, it's probably the caribbean wood.

cheers

Tom
 
yeti8 said:
There's also a difference between desert ironwood and caribbean ironwood, also known as lignum vitae or guaiacum officinale. This was used for carving, carvers' mallets, and various marine applications until it fell onto the endangered list. Lignum vitae sinks in water, so it's quite dense, and works well with carbide tools. Watch for resin buildup on the trailing edge of rotary tools.

I've used it for a few handles. finish to 1000 grit, then buff. Polishing must be done carefully: hotspots will carbonize the resin and cloud the finish.

If the sawdust smells like caramel, it's probably the caribbean wood.

cheers

Tom
Click to expand...

I read that there are at least 80 species referred to, at least locally, as ironwood. I've also heard ironwood defined as any wood with density greater than 1g/cm^3 (sinks in water). For this reason, I always make sure to use the latin names in conjunction with the common names to avoid confusion (even this is not foolproof when the taxonomy is disputed).

In your example, there are many species referred to with the name lignum vitae. The least disputed species is guaiacum officianale, which is endagered. There are other geneses such as bulnesia that are closely related and sometimes referred to as lignum vitae or Argentinian lignum vitae. Working properties are similar, but it is not the same wood.
 
I apologize; when I said Ironwood I meant the Desert variety, even though I knew that there are different types.

Thank you all for the info, lots of good stuff in here. :)
 
Thanks for clearing up my ignorance about ironwood versus cocobolo. My shop teacher said they were the same thing and said that ironwood was used in ships main shafts in old times. He was probably confused by the various misinformation out there.

The stuff I worked with smelled spicy when you cut it. Like some black pepper or something had been added to the saw dust in the air. My shop teacher also said it was heavier than water and would sink, so specific gravity > 1.0 . I never witnessed that, but that's what he said.

Any guess as to whether I worked with ironwood or cocobolo?

Thanks. :)

Brian.
 
When I first started making knives ,I was using our metal shop's equipment. One night I took a big piece of desert Iron wood into make a handle for a sword(two handed) that had the original handle burnt . I worked that bad boy on their band saw and belt sander and man does it STINK BAD!!!!! and like mentioned it sticks to everything I used, the band saw ,the beltsander all had resin or chuncks of iron wood dust stuck to the surfaces. I cleaned up my mess, but the stink just permeated into everything and the next day when the metal shop supervisor showed up, he wanted to know WTF was that smell.it stunk for a week! I told him what I had done and he kicked me out of his shop. It took a couple month's(buying lunch) before I was allowed back in to use their equipment. with the understanding that I would NEVER bring in any Iron wood to work on!!!!!
I found that the more I handled it the natural oils from my skin would be enough to be able to buff it to a nice sheen.
 
When I'm working Desert Ironwood, it smells like a wet, dirty dog to me.

I read that Lignum Vitae was used in the construction of docks and piers. Mostly as piling.
It's the only wood that stands up to salt for a long period of time before breakdown.

Yeah, guys, when your working ANY exotic hardwood, take extra care and use a respirator.
Sometimes you don't know your severely allergic to a given wood till you start showing symptoms, and then it's too late. Better safe than sorry.
 
Thanks all for the recommendations. I took the Desert Ironwood up to 1500 grit and it came out nicely. Satin-ish finish while still allowing the colors within the wood to really come through. So, at the risk of being skewered for my noobish attempts at knife building, here are a couple of pictures. First time doing filework as well, and any constructive criticism is of course welcome. This knife went to my girlfriend for Christmas.

IMG_0191.jpg


IMG_0189.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top