BELO GRANDE MATERIAL TALLY

The Belo Grande inventory is approximately 22,000 bft of the largest, longest Ipe we have ever seen. There are stunning Ipe timbers in this inventory ranging from 5” x 7” to 10” x 12” and from 6’ to 25’ long.  It is available FOB Brazil, for $6.50/bft. & up, based on the quantity purchased.

 In Brazil, Ipe was primarily used in residential construction, such as colonial-era mansions and plantation houses like Belo Grande. In our wanderings we see many different structures - turn-of-the century coffee plantations, cattle ranches, ceramic factories, tapioca processing factories…all coming down to make way for the modern world.

 Ipe wood comes from the genus Handroanthus serratifolia, flowering trees in the family Bignoniaceae. The term Ipe comprises many species of trees, known in Latin America by the common names poui, pau d'arco, epay or ipê. In South America, other species of wood are sometimes confused for the species that make up the category Ipe. Because if this, we lab identify the wood in our projects to eliminate concern and confusion. We personally load our containers to guarantee quantity and quality. Please see our scaling & tallying guidelines for international as-is shipments.

Ipe is nearly four times as dense as teak, so dense that it sinks in water. Like teak, it's durable, and is insect, fungus and decay resistant. Concrete and steel have a class 1 fire rating—and so does Ipe. Because of these qualities it is exported and prized for outdoor applications like furniture, siding and fencing. In tropical South America it has traditionally been used for bows, boats, railroad ties, and tool handles.

All of these applications speak to Ipe’s rare and highly practical qualities as a building material. Unfortunately, because of these same qualities, the harvesting of new Ipe has become a major cause of deforestation in the Amazon. One lesser known fact about Ipe is that the bark and wood of Handroanthus impetiginosus (also known as pau d’arco) is used by both South American indigenous people and in traditional Western medicine. Lapachol, the active compound in the bark and wood of Ipe, can be toxic in large doses, but is clinically effective for a wide range of infections and conditions.