I see it from time to time at DMS. I’m trying to create a striking contrast between some purpleheart and maple. I know purpleheart changes over time but that’s kinda secondary.
What I’m curious about is I know it’s a very dense wood to work with and sometimes the DMS machines are hit or miss. Just how hard is it to work with? Will it just be an exercise in frustration or is it similar to working with oak or similar?
I’ve had no problems with hard woods working at DMS, including purple heart.
That said, it’s good that you are aware they aren’t trivial… keep an eye on tool sharpness, depth of cut, direction of travel, etc.
Maybe just a tad off-topic of what you were asking…but a reminder that, similar to bois’darc/bodark’s striking bright yellow color when freshly cut/milled that turns to a brownish whatever when exposed to sunlight/UV, purpleheart’s “striking” color is not light-fast either, and will oxidize over time as well to a dullish something-or-other.
Some finishing tips, if you are interested, at bottom of this short discussion:
That’s been my experience. Protect it. Protect it quickly. From atmosphere and UV.
I used four coats of PolyCrylic. It does not provide UV protection. The stuff I made only lives inside so PolyCrylic was a reasonable choice. The stuff I made has endured well.
I also found it to be brittle. This was very helpful…
How to deal with the color fading in Purpleheart
Not purpleheart related but this post made me think of a cocobolo bowl I turned years ago, I have a good dust collector that pulls the fine dust floating in the air but bigger particles escape the vacuum, at one point my arms were covered in red chips, and they felt like a sunburn. So far that’s the only wood that I’m sensitive to.
I’ve no messed with Purpleheart but have used rosewood, bloodwood and hickory.
I would recommend getting your own table saw blade if you’re going to do a good amount of woodworking in general at DMS, its a good way to know your blades will be sharp; the problem you can run into with hard hardwoods is if the blade isn’t sharp you’ll get burn marks on the rip line. I’m not sure if Purpleheart is an oily wood like Rosewood and Bloodwood but after you’re done sanding I would suggest wiping the piece with acetone and letting that dry off before applying your finish so that it takes evenly across the whole thing.
Give some thought to your finish, in order to prevent bleed over from the purpleheart onto the maple. Paduak is legendary for this problem. I’ve seen it with ebony and African Blackwood against holly. I’m guessing but don’t see any reason why purpleheart would be any different.
Here’s one possible solution. I haven’t tried this.
I discovered the process many, many years ago when I tried to apply finish to turned bowls that were made from padauk and maple. The fine red sawdust of the padauk would bleed into the maple, no matter what I did. So, I tried applying a coat of wipe-on lacquer (Deft), then wiping it off right away with a paper towel to remove the red from the maple. Presto! The red sawdust wiped away and the finish was perfect. I began to use that process on most items I finish with lacquer. I exclusively have used Deft brand for this process. Occasionally I will thin the Deft, especially if it’s been sitting around for awhile and has thickened somewhat.
So depending on the tools it’ll be a lot different that oak, so oaks a vary wide grain wood so it has a tendency to chip thick sections and pulls along those grains. Purples hearts a very dense tight grained wood filled with alot of resin and alkaloids which is why you have to use an evaporative finish like lacquer because those alkaloids actual retard the curing of a reactive finish like polyurethane, but since it’s denser and packed with resin it tends to split small section but will transfer a lot more energy into kick back than oak so if turning be carful cause the kickback will be significantly more alarming than oak, but With any blades just let the blade do the work don’t force it just feed it with mild pressure and you should find any more difficulty than other types of wood, just shallow passes on surfacing tools slow feed on cutting tools and light passes on lathes and you’ll be fine! But a good lacquer will help with the color fade, just as mentioned above wipe down with acetone a couple times cause the bleed is actually those resins seeping into the finish and so a couple wipes with acetone will pull them from the surface enough to get a clear finish
Re:lacquer: I personally would recommend Mohawk brand lacquer, pre-cat ultra-flo specifically, it’s sold at Elliot’s. I have a business refinishing rare furniture and Mohawk is high above all over spray can lacquers
Yea Mohawks stuff is nitrocellulose lacquer which is unbeatable compared to normal cellulose lacquer but had lost popularity due to the voc level and it’s really only sprayable but the woodcraft in ft worth has quarts which I pick up from time to time and it’s unbearable clarity and glass like smoothness after wet sand, cut, and buff! Great stuff
Yes, I wholeheartedly agree on Mohawk pre-catalyzed lacquer. I spent over an hour a couple of times with Phillip Pritchard in Mohawk tech support, when I was finishing a bowl for the State Fair of Texas last summer. The one thing he cautioned me about was my choice of sanding sealer. He said there was a chance of “acid bleed” for sanding sealers with a sterated compound (specifically containing zinc sterate). Of course, the Sherwin-Williams lacquer sealer of choice at DMS, thinned with lacquer thinner, (aka “Jimmie Juice” to the DMS wood turners) that I had used does contain zinc sterate, so Phillip recommended that I use Mohawk M102-800 Easy Vinyl Sanding Sealer, as a barrier layer before laying on the the last six coats.
Phillip also recommended that I consider Mohawk Stringed Instrument Lacquer M113-1406 for future turned bowls, which is made to withstand the expansion and contraction of stringed instruments. I believe Elliott’s had the stringed instrument lacquer in the can, but not aerosol, however Woodcraft does carry the aerosol spray.
I feel like I’ve seen the rattle can of instrument lacquer at the one in the design dist, that’s the one I’m at most days of the week grabbing stuff. Next time I’m by I’ll check for it.
Mohawk has a great sanding sealer I use when I have a piece that’s had water damage or some other issue and is taking color odd in the afflicted area. I also love seal-a-cell and occasionally sealcoat is nice, although I cut sealcoat heavily.
Everything I’ve used by Mohawk I absolutely love, although I wish they had WAY more descriptive product guides because I’m sure there’s a lot of stuff I would love if I knew it’s application
Oh yeah, it’s nasty stuff, I wear a full face respirator and have a fan mounted to blow out as much as possible when I’m spraying a piece. I know a few other people who do refinishing in other states who use the non rattle can version in their HVLP set ups and rave about it.
Instead of wet sanding I 00 wool between coats and then 00-000-0000 before the last coat and that gets me where I need to be for high high gloss finishes. When it comes to refinishing there’s no “one stop shop” miracle product imo EXCEPT Mohawk sells a product called “OZ” that’s a liquid polish that is incredible on lacquer. If you apply it with 0000 and wipe it off after your last layer of topcoat has dried you’ll have the nicest gloss finish, it works miracles on dull old lacquer too.
Here’s some pieces I did this way, I wish I could seal-a-cell->arm-r-seal or Rubio/Polyx everything but it takes so much longer because or color matching/curing times
Max,
Don’t hesitate to call Mohawk Finishing Products Technical Support at [800-545-0047] and ask whatever questions you have. It may be the best product tech support line I have ever used.
I go to the Plano Elliott’s. I’ve requested some Old Master’s Gel Polyurethane in satin and they not only ordered me a can, they began stocking and recommending it to their customers. I use it on intarsia projects, where I’m not looking for a high-build, high-sheen finish on a lot of small irregular-shaped pieces.
Jeff
Yea sounds like a product similar to wool lube, but that is a great thing about lacquer is you can get a pretty pristine finish using that “rubbing out” technique
