white pores in purple heart

[Richard Dooling]

I am seeing a white material in some of the pores in some purple heart I'm working with. Will this disappear with age? I did not really want to stain the wood.

Thanks,
Richard

[Scott Holmes]

You didn't give us much info. Is it raw wood with white or have you applied something to it?

[Richard Dooling]

Sorry Scott,

I guess I thought this might be a well known quality of purple heart but I should have been clearer.

Only some of the pores have this and it's not the first board I've seen this in. It is only in the pores and is not dust from sanding. This is in raw wood and is even more noticeable when finished.

Fortunately I only had a very thin layer of lacquer on this so I was able to remove it and a stain mostly killed the white. I talked to a guy at a crafts fair a while back and he claimed that it would disappear as the wood ages and especially if exposed to sunlight, but he was a bit . . . well, as we say in the south "different" and I'm not too confident in his expertise.

You can see it pretty clear in the picture.

Thanks

purpleHeart.jpg

[Scott Holmes]

Richard,

Sorry I don't know what caused this. Nor have I worked with purpleheart that had this trait.

[Chris Fournier]

It is silica or mineral deposits in the wood. Purpleheart is notorious for this and it eats tooling where it occurs. I have actually worked boards that had chunks of mineral deposits in them the size of a prune.

Once you have put a clear finish on the wood you could tint some paste wax to a colour match or complimentary colour and simply apply the wax to your project and buff it off as you normally would. This will cover the white pores.

[Quinn McCarthy]

I had the same thing on a doll cradle I built for somebody. I get left them alone. It looked just fine.

Quinn

[Richard Dooling]

Thanks Chris,

As soon as I read your post I kicked myself. This is obviously silica in the pores. I've also seen this in other woods but it is so obvious in the purple heart that I may have to avoid this wood or very closely inspect each board. I guess this will vary quite a bit from tree to tree depending on soil content.

For this small box project I used a sharp awl to dig the silica out of the pores. The silica went right up to the surface so simply filling the pores wouldn't work.

Now I can fill those pores to get the surface level.

[Chris Fournier]

It does seem to occur on a board by board basis. A quick skip dressing will ususally be good enough to let you know if you're gonna have trouble.

[Karl Card]

I have had quite a few boards of purpleheart and never really questioned this, I dont think I have had any that were quite this noticable though. But now I will be looking for it a little harder. I guess you could say I mostly always had an attitude towards wood that "it is what it is" and never really questioned why.