keeping purpleheart purple

[D K Woods]

I think I've read somewhere that purpleheart will brown with age. Is this true, and is there anything I can do to prevent it from happening?

Any other tricks to using purpleheart?

thanks david

[Ernie Jurick]

Believe it or not, Armorall, the car stuff is recommended under the finish coats. And the finish should be UV-blocking. Wish I could supply a source, but it's just something afloat in my memory banks. Wait for confirmation. :-)

-- Ernie

[charlieb]

Ernie:

The source is probably Micahel Fortune, a prominent Canadian furniture maker. In one of his demos or classes at a woodworking show he was showing slides of his work. There were several slides of a piece with a lot of purple heart. Someone noted that it browns out with exposure to sunlight and asked how he planned on prventing that from happening. "Armoral." Seems even a thin layer provides a great deal of UV blocking - works on vinyl dashboards and they get a lot of exposure to UV.

Does that ring any bells.

charlie b

[McQualude]

Ernie Jurick spaketh...

Is it UV or oxygen that turns purpleheart brown?

[HarryM]

I use a product called Fabulon Pryme to block UV darkening, but I haven't had trouble with purpleheart turning brown like I have with osage orange or padauk. Pryme won't prevent darkening -- it just delays it. harrym

[Doug Miller]

IME, it's UV that makes it *purple* -- brown when first cut, purple on exposure to sunlight.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

Save the baby humans - stop partial-birth abortion NOW

[Luigi Zanasi]

On Sat, 12 Jul 2003 15:47:18 -0500, D K Woods scribbled

I thought Jeff Gorman's site had a discussion on the effect of sun on different woods, but I can't seem to find it.

here is my recent experience. I built a bookcase for the LOML's office this winter out of purpleheart & poplar. After doing some research, I finished it with exterior Varathane water based UV-protected poly. (Sorry Larry) The bookcase is still purple, with no discernible browning. It is not subjected to much light.

Some scraps ended up in my solarium. The top parts of the scrap pieces, which were exposed to light, have turned brown, while the bottom is still purple, although not as bright as the bookcase in the basement.

After planing, cutting and sanding it, the purpleheart was brownish, but it turned purple in a few days.

Luigi Replace "no" with "yk" twice in reply address for real email address

[Ernie Jurick]

No idea. I'm relying on memory here, which is increasingly unreliable beyond the age of 60. That's why I added the caveat.

-- Ernie

[Steve Knight]

now not all purpleheart turns brown when you cut it. the wood I get just turns a lighter purple. I notice the wood that turns brown is a more open pored wood and not as dense. So far I have not found any of my purpleheart brown. but that could mean it has not sat around long enough. I will test it.