Purpleheart

[Phillip]

I have looked through the past posts and have yet found an answer to may question. Why does my purple heart turn brown. I have tried turning the blanks at different speeds. I have tried finishing at different speeds. I have used different finishes including but not limited to CA. I have also wore latex gloves to keep oils from my hands off the wood while working with it. 11 pieces of purple heart from different suppliers all turned on me. Could someone please help. Thanks.

 

[Aderhammer]

let it sit out in the sun for some time before you finish it so it oxidizes to the purple color.

 

[Russianwolf]

fresh cut/turned purpleheart is brown. It needs exposure to turn purple, then it will eventually go back to brown with purple highlights in a couple years.

Bill at AS has some stabilized PH that didn't brown too much when I turned it. And it purpled back up nicely in short order.

 

[Phillip]

Thanks fellas, I was thinking there was a higher power telling me to stay away from the purple stuff. I will try and let it set out before finishing.

 

[Ligget]

I just finished a purpleheart Euro, to get it purple quicker how about putting it into a light tent, should have tried it myself.

 

[desert1pocket]

UV rays cause a chemical reaction that turns it purple. Just the right amount of heat will also have a similar reaction. After too many times being exposed to UV, the reaction is less pronounced, and over the years it will slowly turn a purplish brown, and stay that way.

 

[Rmartin]

Try tulipwood from Brazil. It has a creamy straw colored background with streaks of yellow rose, pink, and violet.

 

[edstreet]

The trees are prized for their beautiful heartwood which, when cut, quickly turns from a dark brown to a rich purple color. Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light darkens the wood to a brown color with a slight hue of the original purple. This effect can be minimized with a finish containing a UV inhibitor.

Might want to give it some sun screen before sending it out in the sun.

Ed

 

[leatherjunkie]

this is what i do to get the purple to come out on pupleheart.

sand it to 1000 grit. once 1000 grit paper is clogged up i will keep it on the blank with pressure in one spot till the paper starts heating up and i can feel it with my fingers. then i just slowly move it to the other side of the blank maintaining the pressure and heat buildup at my fingers. keep it going back and forth till i get the color that i want.

after i get the color that i want i will stop lathe and walk away from it to let the wood cool down at its own pace. i give it about 20 mins. then i will apply my finish.

i have tried using a propane torch to bring out the purple but it cracked due to heating up too fast. i haven't cracked a blank with the sandpaper trick yet so thats what i use.

 

[maxwell_smart007]

Coincidentally, I just turned a piece of purpleheart tonight! Wasn't as purple as I'd like, so I tossed it in the oven at 350, and in about 10 minutes, it was a really really rich purple. Stuck it on the concrete floor downstairs to cool down, and tomorrow I'll apply some finish.

 

[jskeen]

While we are on the subject of this wood, is it just the chunk I have been using for the last few years, or does all purpleheart have very open grain. Mine is even worse than most of my walnut and padauk.

James

 

[wesley8747]

I do the same thing as leather junkie only I use steel wool instead of sandpaper. But the common theme here seems to be heat.

 

[arioux]

Originally posted by jskeen
<br />While we are on the subject of this wood, is it just the chunk I have been using for the last few years, or does all purpleheart have very open grain. Mine is even worse than most of my walnut and padauk.

James

Hi,

Yes, purpleheart is a very open grain wood. A little more than padouk.

Alfred

 

[Cecilia]

The very first pen I ever made was purpleheart. I still have it 5(6?) years later, and it's nowhere close to being as purple as it was the day I turned it. It's now a deep purple/brown. That day, I used a torn up paper grocery bag folded up into tight creases to burn a few deep purple stripes in it. Those lines look black now.

I can't remember how it happened, but I managed to get some CA glue on it right after I'd finished it. I was still new enough at it that I was unwilling to take it apart and re-finish it, partly because I didn't yet have a disassembly tool. :-/ Anyway, the spot with the CA on it is still a bright reddish purple. I left it just like that because it was my first pen, and I wanted to remember the adventure of doing something new, as well as recall my mistakes in hopes of not making the same ones again. No worries. I found a whole bunch of new ones to make.

That said, I've also turned some purpleheart that *already* looked brown when I turned it. It seems to me that purpleheart gets *more* brown with age and exposure, rather than the other way around. The blanks that sit in the shop longest before I turn them seem to be browner than the ones that I turn soonest. Or it could just be my imagination.

Also, part of the issue may be with which part of the tree you get. If your blanks are from the outer rings, they may be darker and/or browner than ones cut from heartwood. Maybe that's why it's called purple*heart*. Just speculation, though. Can't say for sure.

If anybody out there has any tricks & tips for keeping it as bright purple as it starts out, I'd be interested. I'll probably try some experiments soon with some kind of UV-resistant polish and/or finish it with CA.

Oh, yeah. Sometimes I do the friction thing with paper (just about any kind will do) to deepen the purple. After that, I just stick the finished blanks in the globe of a light fixture next to the bulbs for a while to let them darken a little more. But not long enough to start a fire.

And the grain is a little open, in line with Padauk, but not as much as some red oak I've turned. I finish it almost like an acrylic, using Micro Mesh, going up to about 4800 or 6000, then using two grades of PPP, and wrapping up with a couple of coats of Hut Crystal Coat. May be overkill, but I get a smoother finish these days than I did when I first started turning.

 

[edstreet]

Yes, see my above post about the sun screen. Purpleheart *WILL* turn brown over time unless you use some type of UV blocking product on it.

Ed

 

[TellicoTurning]

I haven't worked any pens in PH lately, but in my photo album are a couple of pieces I did in PH.. one is a candle light, the other is an oil lamp.. the PH is bright and was bright when I turned it.. didn't have any problems with it browning at all.