Enhancing The Color Of Purpleheart

[MasPlan]

A project I'm working on is a segmented pen using Purple Heart & an Acrylic in the Cap Section, both cut on a 45 degree angle & separated with a piece of aluminum from a soda can. I'd like to enhance the color of the Purple Heart using heat; either a butane torch or heat gun.
Does anyone have a suggestion on how to accomplish this without melting the Acrylic? (since the blank will have to be nearly turned to size for the color enhancement to be complete).
Thanks For The Assistance

 

[jrista]

A project I'm working on is a segmented pen using Purple Heart & an Acrylic in the Cap Section, both cut on a 45 degree angle & separated with a piece of aluminum from a soda can. I'd like to enhance the color of the Purple Heart using heat; either a butane torch or heat gun.
Does anyone have a suggestion on how to accomplish this without melting the Acrylic? (since the blank will have to be nearly turned to size for the color enhancement to be complete).
Thanks For The Assistance

Why heat? The purple of purpleheart can be enhanced greatly with nothing more than acetone...

How To Make Purpleheart Very Purple

Article: The coloring comes variety of organic compounds called conjugated dienes, that reflect visible light in both the high and low end range of the visible spectrum (from 400-700nm). Some of which have solubility in polar protic compounds like water, others of which are only soluble in...

kingsfinewoodworking.com

And UV light:

Frankenpurple a.k.a. The Purple-izer

Purple Heart, or Peltogyne can be a beautiful addition to a woodworking project. It is extremely dense, blunts your tools quickly and the dust can cause irritation and nausea to the woodwor…

bkibby.wordpress.com

 

[hewunch]

In this situation, I would lean toward UV (sunlight too). Acetone could potentially chemically melt the acrylic or glue used in segmenting (esp CA)

 

[jrista]

In this situation, I would lean toward UV (sunlight too). Acetone could potentially chemically melt the acrylic or glue used in segmenting (esp CA)

Good point about the acetone and the acrylic/CA. I would stick with UV light in that case. I picked up an actual UV lamp myself, as I've read a bunch about how the full spectrum of sunlight can also push the wood into browning faster as well.

 

[MasPlan]

Why heat? The purple of purpleheart can be enhanced greatly with nothing more than acetone...

How To Make Purpleheart Very Purple

Article: The coloring comes variety of organic compounds called conjugated dienes, that reflect visible light in both the high and low end range of the visible spectrum (from 400-700nm). Some of which have solubility in polar protic compounds like water, others of which are only soluble in...

kingsfinewoodworking.com

And UV light:

Frankenpurple a.k.a. The Purple-izer

Purple Heart, or Peltogyne can be a beautiful addition to a woodworking project. It is extremely dense, blunts your tools quickly and the dust can cause irritation and nausea to the woodwor…

bkibby.wordpress.com

Thanks for the information; I've not tried any of these tips but now have some direction I can use to move forward!

 

[jrista]

Thanks for the information; I've not tried any of these tips but now have some direction I can use to move forward!

Sure thing. You should really seal your wood with some kind of UV protective sealer or finish once you get it as purple as you can. The compounds that make the wood purple break down, and over time, eventually, it will become brown, but with a UV protective seal, it should take a lot longer before that happens.

 

[qquake]

I'm curious. How long does it take for UV light to darken purpleheart?

 

[jrista]

I'm curious. How long does it take for UV light to darken purpleheart?

The second link has a video, where the guy ran an experiment to determine just that. In his test, the first hour of exposure produced the most significant gains. I think he tested out to 6 or 8 hours, and there were further improvements to the color, but of course with diminishing return.