This is in response to the person who was having trouble getting his brown wood to turn purple. From the rec.sport.billiard ng:
Purpleheart is brown when first cut, and will turn purple after exposure to uv light, as long as it has not been finished with a uv blocker. The final color varies with the amount of reactive pigments in the wood. Whenever I make a purpleheart cue, I hang it under fluorescent lamps for a few days to bring out the color prior to finishing, and it works v. good. P. Fanelli
On Fri, 21 May 2004 04:50:19 GMT, "Dan White" posted:
Good info.
Now if we could have the species of tree whose wood does that, we will have some useful knowledge. That's if what I read is true that there are several woods called purple heart.
Purple is my favourite colour, and I suspect my three-year-old granddaugter's too, from all the purple clothes she wears, but she keeps asserting to everyone who'll listen -- "I don't like pwerple!"
Just wait till I make something out of "Pwerple" poplar :)
According to the Forest Products Labs database there are at least 10 identified species called "purpleheart", in addition the entire genus "Peltogyne" is known by that name. In addition to the Peltogynes though, any wood of genus Hymenaea (some of which are listed as alternate names for some of the Peltogynes--I'm not clear on whether there's confusion over which genus those particular species belong in or whether Hymenaea has been found to be the same as Peltogyne and the scientific community hasn't gotten the resulting mess cleaned up yet) is called "purpleheart" as are a couple of species of Copaifera.
They have details only on peltogyne as a genus, which they say is brown when cut, turns purple on exposure, and then back to dark brown, without any mention of UV or the effects of chemicals or finishes. They also say that Janka hardness ranges from 1860 to 3920 pounds, which is quite a range, suggesting (to me anyway) that there is considerable variation in that property between species, which further suggests that there may be variation in other properties.
All varieties seem to come from the same general region, so you can't single any of them out by origin.
If anybody knows an agriculture or biology grad student in need of a topic for a Masters' thesis, "what makes purpleheart turn purple and is it the same for all varieties" would be a good topic IMO.
this is not a given it depends on the wood. some purpleheart only turns a lighter purple and never turns brown. there are several woods called purpleheart.
the purpleheart that turns a lighter purple. it tends to be denser then the stuff that turns brown when cut. but it also tends not to have much figure.
identified species called "purpleheart", in addition the entire genus "Peltogyne" is known by that name. In addition to the Peltogynes though, any wood of genus Hymenaea (some of which are listed as alternate names for some of the Peltogynes--I'm not clear on whether there's confusion over which genus those particular species belong in or whether Hymenaea has been found to be the same as Peltogyne and the scientific community hasn't gotten the resulting mess cleaned up yet) is called "purpleheart" as are a couple of species of Copaifera.
+ + All the purple-turning purpleheart is from the genus Peltogyne, which counts some twenty species. There is some variation in the other properties, some woods are rather fine, some pretty coarse.
Hymenaea is a related genus, of which the wood never turns purple. There is no confusion on the difference between the two genera in the scientific community (at least not in the part that deals with such matters). Would not want to vouch for the Social Sciences. PvR
counts some twenty species. There is some variation in the other properties, some woods are rather fine, some pretty coarse.
is no confusion on the difference between the two genera in the scientific community (at least not in the part that deals with such matters). Would not want to vouch for the Social Sciences.
+ + I don't need to explain this to the FPL, as they know what they are doing. The existence of such a synonym does not mean more than that once upon a time there was somebody who felt that the species belongs in another genus and went into print saying so. This feeling can be based on all sorts of reasons, even a plain mistake.
For example mahogany was originally described as a species in Cedrela, as "mahogany is a kind of cedar" (one of many). This means that among the synonyms of Swietenia mahagoni (L.) Jacq. is Cedrela mahagoni L. This does not mean that there is any confusion between Cedrela and Swietenia. Any such confusion is more than two centuries in the past. (At least there is no confusion among scientists, last week I met somebody who had a cedar board and felt it was mahogany.)
A more extreme case is Andira and Vouacapoua which share synonyms even though they are not related (different (sub)families). It is not really an exception to have up to fifty synonyms for any one correct name, and some of these can be really wild. All it takes is somebody who in the past 250 years has been willing to go into print with a viewpoint. PvR
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