At this time of year...best way to make purpleheart turn purple?

[Don Morris]

I've read up on the factors needed to turn purpleheart purple. I'm a little heitant to let it set outside to get natural sunlight. Winter aside, with my luck the birds will sit on it...and you know what happens next. My small woodshop has fluorescent T8 lights. Supposedly those lights give off some UV rays too, but i have read the T8 lights release only a very small amount of UV rays. Or I could set the project behind window glass on a sun exposed side of the house. But most UV rays are blocked by glass. Maybe, I shouldI just put the project on hold until warmer weather with more opportunities to catch real sun with abundant UV rays. What would you guys and gals recommend? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance to those who take their time to respond!

V/r

Don M

[Jim Becker]

Purpleheart is only "purple" when fresh cut, in my experience. With oxidation and UV, it turns a brownish maroon. Example...my main bench. Look at the outer borders lengthwise which are purpleheart. First photo is when new. Second photo is "recently".

IMG_7195.jpg IMG_5037.jpg

[Michael Burnside]

You can use a heat gun to turn it purple (usual warning should be obvious). I've used the trick on some picture frames, then sealed with a UV protectant to maintain the color. No idea if an epoxy coating would prevent oxidation or not, but good luck!

[Jimmy Harris]

There are several different, I don't know if they're varieties or species, of wood sold under the name purpleheart. So the colors of the wood and how fast they change can vary.

But in the purpleheart that I've worked with, it turned from greyish purple to deep purple in about a day or two on its own. It really didn't take long or any special lights. Just ordinary LED house lights and maybe some indirect sunlight from some windows that were at least 15 feet away. Pretty much when I was ready to seal it, it had already achieved that nice purple I was going for.

Maybe cut off a small sliver and give it a test to see how it reacts.

[Patty Hann]

Purpleheart is only "purple" when fresh cut, in my experience. With oxidation and UV, it turns a brownish maroon.

Ditto on this. All the projects I've seen in my wood class (and my own end grain cutting board) that had purpleheart in them, all that purpleheart is now brownish.

[Bill Dufour]

Tanning Bed?
Bill D

[Larry Edgerton]

If you want purple, buy Padauk and spray it with an acid catalyzed finish. It is purple as fresh cut purpleheart and stays that way forever.

[Rob Sack]

I have found that using a solvent based wipe on oil finish will ultimately turn Purpleheart brown. However, spraying nitrocellulose lacquer or spraying a solvent based vinyl sealer first followed by a water based topcoat will keep the purple color. One of my bathroom vanities is solid Purpleheart and finished with vinyl sealer and water based top coat. The trim is straight nitrocellulose lacquer. It was all finished over 20 years ago. While the purple color has lost just a bit of its original "pop", all the woodwork is still definitely purple with no hint of brown and there appears to be little or no difference between the vanity and the trim despite the different approaches to finishing.

[Tom Bender]

Bob that's interesting. I have had no luck keeping it purple. Fortunately I like the dark brown. Can you post a picture of your 20 year old purple, maybe with a fresh sample?

[John Kananis]

Larry, this is interesting and I wouldn't mind trying this out. What did you use exactly? I've sprayed padauk with precat lacquer before and it just goes from red to dark brown over time (like all padauk I've used).

If you want purple, buy Padauk and spray it with an acid catalyzed finish. It is purple as fresh cut purpleheart and stays that way forever.

[Larry Edgerton]

Larry, this is interesting and I wouldn't mind trying this out. What did you use exactly? I've sprayed padauk with precat lacquer before and it just goes from red to dark brown over time (like all padauk I've used).

Sherwin Williams talked me into switching to an acid catalized finish. It was a nice finish but had serious drawbacks. Even with a booth and respirator it was terrible to work with, made anything steel rust, but..

I was spraying a carved window with a tree, and the leafy part of the tree was padauk. When it dried it was as purple as purple could be. Its on a local restaurant, and it is still purple to this day.

I used the rest of the 55 gal drum to keep the dust down in the back parking lot and have not bought a thing from Sherwin Williams since.

[John Kananis]

Wow, sounds like pretty caustic stuff. Thanks for the fyi.