I am not using purpleheart again if I can avoid it. Working that stuff is like trying to work concrete. The color is nice enough but it just isn't worth the frustration. It tears out if you just look at it funny. Even my trusty Veritas jack plane couldn't plane it without tear out.
And has anyone noticed that it smells funny when you cut it? It smells like old M&Ms.
I'm assuming you mean a low angle jack? Purple heart is splintery and hard. Low angle would not be the best plane to use. Its one of those times when the "one size fits all" doesn't apply.
Most of the hard oily exotics are like that, yellow heart, wenge, paduak etc. pay special attention to grain direction and of course super sharp tools only!
I don't think it works too bad, though the splinters are nasty. It just frustrates me to know that color won't hold. I tell people when I hand them something with purpleheart, hey look, that is going to turn brown in a year or two.
Purple heart gets me sick so no more for me, as far as smell I had some rough sawn stuff and when I cleaned it up it smelled really sweet and gave off a unique aroma when cutting. A pleasent smell.
I swear it smells like old M&Ms! As in M&Ms that have been sitting around way too long. I think it happens when a saw blade hits one of the dark streaks and heats it up.
I'd like to try bloodwood but I hear that's just as bad.
I have worked with one piece of readheart though. It seemed much softer. If I could find boards of it I might try that.
I said that after my last (LAST) project with padauk. Just cleaning all the greasy sanding dust off everything in the shop including me was a bear. BUT…...it sure is purdy wood.
Bill
If you don't like purpleheart, you definately want to avoid Bois de Arc, blackjack oak, Jatoba, and mesquite as they make purpleheart look easy! Figured maple doesn't like to be planed either.
Isn't mesquite hard to find in board quantities? I've been browsing The Wood Database. I haven't heard of the others, save Jatoba.
As Mr. White said above, the exotics sure are pretty. I've got a board of jarrah (just one small board) and it looks amazing. I wanted to try wenge for its color but it's awfully spendy. Plus I hear it's also very difficult to work.
That is a pretty amazing handle you made there. Impressive;
You just have to keep your blades sharp to work some woods, sometimes you may have to sharpen while in the process of working the woods. Of all the woods I've worked the worst though has to be makore, or african cherry. It's not that it's extremely dense, it's that it's got alot of silica in the wood which dulls the blades often, and if you don't keep things sharp, it tears out. That's pretty much any wood though.
Bois de Arc is also called hedgeapple,hedge,horse apple, or Osage orange. Mesquite in board and slab is available through several LJ members. If you want some just post a request in the wood forum section.
Purpleheart has never been that big of a problem for me. Keep all your blades as sharp and clean as they possibly can get it it works well. I have more trouble with satine (bloodwood) than with purpleheart.
Starting saturday, purpleheart is 60% off at woodcraft - that makes is about the price of 1 common pine!
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