Purple heart finishing

[Nicholas Bukky]

Any one have any advice on how to keep purple heart from turning brown?

Thanks,
Nick

[Rob Sack]

I've used nitrocellulose lacquer with good results as well as vinyl sealer followed by water based topcoat.

[Lance Norris]

Ive had the best results with waterbased finishes. I like Minwax Polycrylic

[Tony Bilello]

I have been working with it for almost 30 years and I haven't heard of any way to prevent it from turning brown. From what I understand, PH, Padouk and many other species do not keep their original colors for more than a few years. It is caused by oxidation and UV rays. The oxidation can be slowed down by applying a good hard finish and the UV can be slowed down by applying a good exterior varnish or a 2K Urethane (I haven't tried the 2K urethane on PH yet). A lot has to do with light exposure in the room the PH will be located in.
I noticed that generally, PH and Padouk will keep their color for about a year or so and then darken gradually. I quit using PH mainly for that reason plus a few others. It turns to what I consider an unattractive brown color. Padouk, on the other hand, turns to a rich brown with red highlights which is still quite attractive.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help and I know this ain't what you wanted to hear.

[Phil Phelps]

I have been working with it for almost 30 years and I haven't heard of any way to prevent it from turning brown. From what I understand, PH, Padouk and many other species do not keep their original colors for more than a few years. It is caused by oxidation and UV rays. The oxidation can be slowed down by applying a good hard finish and the UV can be slowed down by applying a good exterior varnish or a 2K Urethane (I haven't tried the 2K urethane on PH yet). A lot has to do with light exposure in the room the PH will be located in.
I noticed that generally, PH and Padouk will keep their color for about a year or so and then darken gradually. I quit using PH mainly for that reason plus a few others. It turns to what I consider an unattractive brown color. Padouk, on the other hand, turns to a rich brown with red highlights which is still quite attractive.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help and I know this ain't what you wanted to hear.

Sorry? For what? That's a great post. You gave more information in one paragraph than most will ever hear and could save folks a lot of grief. I like it.

[Rob Sack]

I have been working with it for almost 30 years and I haven't heard of any way to prevent it from turning brown. From what I understand, PH, Padouk and many other species do not keep their original colors for more than a few years. It is caused by oxidation and UV rays. The oxidation can be slowed down by applying a good hard finish and the UV can be slowed down by applying a good exterior varnish or a 2K Urethane (I haven't tried the 2K urethane on PH yet). A lot has to do with light exposure in the room the PH will be located in.
I noticed that generally, PH and Padouk will keep their color for about a year or so and then darken gradually. I quit using PH mainly for that reason plus a few others. It turns to what I consider an unattractive brown color. Padouk, on the other hand, turns to a rich brown with red highlights which is still quite attractive.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help and I know this ain't what you wanted to hear.

I am going to have to disagree. I build a bathroom cabinet out of purpleheart and maple 20 years ago. It was finished with solvent based conversion varnish. It was nasty stuff to work with, with a horrible outgassing smell until cured. However, after 20 years, the purpleheart is still bright purple, although the maple has yellowed considerably. Not wanting to work with this product again, I switched to nitrocellulose lacquer and water base over solvent based vinyl sealer, as mentioned in my previous post, on some additional bath cabinetry. Although after 5 years, the purpleheart has mellowed with these finishes as compared to the 20 year old bath cabinet finished with conversion varnish, it has definitely remained purple in color, not brown.

[Chris Fournier]

I would have to side with Tony and his observations about purpleheart and padauk - almost entirely.

I have cut up an awful lot of this stuff in the past and it was purchased by intarsia builders. I always told them that it won't stay purple and it pretty much never did. Just like cherry, you could see the PH turning brown in very short order. Padauk is the same but the process seems to take quite a bit longer.

The outlier is this, every now and then you'll see a PH board that is SO purple it looks fake. The purple is identical to look of a grape popsicle - deep, rich purple. I've bought a couple of impressive boards like this and used others like them and they are as purple as the day that I first came across them. Perhaps these really purple boards has a surplus of some certain compound found in PH and it gives them their "super powers"?

In William Alexander's book: World Woods In Colour (a fantastic wood ID book) he says:

"The heartwood is a deep purple-violet when freshly cut, maturing to a dark brown; the original colour is restored when re-cut."

"Spirit varnishes remove the purple colour; lacquer finishes preserve the colour."

I guess that Tony and Rob are both correct then, but my experience would align itself with Tony more often than Rob. Regardless of the finishing material I've found that 99% of PH turns brown over time; direct sunlight is a guarantee that this will happen ASAP.

If I remeber to I'll take a photo of the two boards that I have in stock and you'll see what I mean. All of this aside, I really hate working with PH as it is a tooling eater.

[Dave Wagner]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...t=purple+heart

[Matt Meiser]

I build a bathroom cabinet out of purpleheart and maple 20 years ago.

Out of curiosity, how much sunlight does it see?

[Tony Bilello]

................... I really hate working with PH as it is a tooling eater.

How about the gazillions of tiny splinters that take a week for your body to finally eject them.

[Chris Fournier]

How about the gazillions of tiny splinters that take a week for your body to finally eject them.

Okay that's really annoying too but I really only complain about splinters when working with wenge; they are like lances.

[Tony Bilello]

Another note on purple heart......In my experience, PH ought to be visibly very purple even as rough cut lumber. Maybe it's because I buy from places that have a high turn-around and it hasnt had a chance to get brown yet. Others I know have bought PH with a lot of brown in the rough cut stage and when planed it never really got all that purple. There are parts of the log that dont have that deep purple. Just like any other lumber, all of the boards in a tree don't look alike. This is where it might come in handy to have the yard plane one side. Then you will know for sure. If you have a reputable dealer you can order by phone and know the delivery will be good because lumber yards are like most other businesses in that they are consistant. PH and other exotics are just like domestic lumber in the sense that after milled, it is graded and sold to the highest bidder. When I lived in Gulfport, Ms. we had a lumber yard that sold a lower grade of exotics. I had to go to New Orleans about 70 miles away to get the good stuff.
Anyway, it's something to think about.

[Rob Sack]

Out of curiosity, how much sunlight does it see?

Quite a bit of morning sun up until about 1:00 PM