Purple Confusion

[Malcolm Wheeler]

I have a problem with a bowl - it is three layers composed of purple heart, aspen and bloodwood. Unfortunately after all the machining, the purple heart is rather brown. Now I searched here on the Creek and elsewhere on the net and the advice was to put the bowl in the sun. However, a few years ago one of my purple heart projects looked like brown walnut after just six months near the window - no purple anywhere.

So the advice given seems to conflict with my own experience.

Other advice mentioned baking the purple heart in the oven, but I am loathe to do that as I am worried the glue joint will crack or perhaps that the aspen and blood wood will expand at a different rate and crack the bowl.

Any tips for me so that the purple heart at least matches the color of my mood before I add varnish?

regards
Malcolm

[Steve Vaughan]

Others more experienced will chime in here, and mine is limited... I've had a piece of scrap purpleheart laying around for several years, and it's still purple. But then, as it's laid around, it's always been under stuff, and stuck here and there among other scraps. Just moved it the other day and yup, it's purple.

I think that light is the big enemy here. It seems like I've read that with purpleheart, light will eventually turn it to a brown color. Perhaps you can resand it to expose some fresh color, then as a final finish, use a topcoat that has the UV inhibitors in it and then keep it away from direct light in order to hold on to the purple as long as possible. Good luck with it!