Purpleheart vs. Rosewood

Dadoo,

Found this website that has some information about exotic woods- maybe it will help.

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/

Lew

Brazilian Rosewood might have a purple tint. he wood is restricted and is not sold anymore except for old wood that might still exist in the world. Other varieties of rosewood are available. The the Brazilian version is very expensive but was used a lot in old tools and was readily available them.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

I think the majority of the older planes used rosewood for the totes. I’m in the process of redoing some of my planes, but I using cherry, ala Lie-Nielsen. Wouldn’t look forward to doing all of that shaping with purpleheart.

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com

Thanx guys but what I’m asking is: Does Rosewood sand to a fine purple dust…a dust that tints and stains everything? It even turned the polyurethane a purple color. At first I thought it might be a dye Stanley used for the tote and knob (see this: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/9178) but the deeper I sanded, the more there was!

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

Dado;

I suppose rosewood could produce purple sawdust, coming from certain boards. I think it would be somewhat rare though.

I’ve never heard of any commercial company that used purple heart in their operations.

Lee

-- by Lee A. Jesberger http://www.prowoodworkingtips.com http://www.ezee-feed.com

Dadoo can you give us a picture.
As far as I know there is only one general species of purpleheart but several woods get named “rose wood”
I have even seen cocobolo named rose wood.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

When purpleheart is sanded it looks brown at first, then turns back to purple after the air/sun hits it. Is that the case?

I’ve got some SE Asian rosewood that is definitely purplish in color.

Dadoo, you wouldn’t be a little color blind would you? :]

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com

It might be kingwood. I’m not positive if it’s a true rosewood but I’ve seen it referred to as rosewood sometimes. Kingwood can have a very purple cast to it.

-- Use the fence Luke