help with purple heartwood finish

i think freshly cut, purple heart will turn brown. then leaving it exposed to air, it will go back to purple. then if it is exposed to light to long, it will end up a purplish brown. I can’t be certain (you would think with so many people using PH, there wouldn’t be so many myths floating around about it). I bought my first piece a few weeks ago. At some point, I’ll try it out on simething to see what happens. Hopefully someone else can contribute more than me.

Purpleheart ages to a brownish color regardless of what you do, in my experience. The best finish I’ve found for preserving the purple color is mineral oil.

-- Jace - http://rumplestiltskeins.etsy.com - http://www.lessthanunder.com - http://www.shopsmith.com --

I agree with jnimz, I have also had Purpleheart in the hand a few times (mainly knife making or woodturnings) and it always seem to turn a brownish color. I think that is just the way it is with alot of woods, they seem just to turn brown when starting out a reddish color (especially tropical woods). Same thing with plum wood.. it starts the most beautiful wood out of the planer, but after a year or sometimes less with sunlight it is just brown, still really pretty but browns and reddish browns.

I do not know about mineral oil… sounds good I will have to give it a shot

-- Nicholas, Journeyman Cabinetmaker, Partenkirchen, Germany

I have tried using the Waterlox Marine quality polyeurethane/oil finish to see if the UV inhibitors will help keep the color of fancy woods brighter. It’s very costly ($30./qt.)and has toxic fumes, although there’s a new low VOC formula. This seems to have helped a bit, as I’ve had to re-finish a Pink Ivory & Purpleheart cane that was finished with tung oil that allowed them both turn brown. This photos is with the original tung oil finish before it darkened: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/11812 . I’ve used this also on other bright fancy woods but I haven’t had these pieces long enough to tell if this formula really helps http://lumberjocks.com/projects/11578 .

-- "They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night." ~ Edgar Allan Poe

Thanks for the comments. My next project also involves purple heartwood and I’ll try some of the suggestions above.

-- “I'm thinking about it, ... I'm thinking it's the best way to piss [the French] off.” -Lance Armstrong