It's purple

[rocket]

Hi there all, i wonder if anyone can shed some light on this for me.
I picked up a chunk of timber from the timber yard, "purple heart" they call it, hard as nails and very heavy, quarter sawn, thought it might make a different fret board. Anyway , after dressing it up a bit i noticed that the purple colour had disappeared, so disapointed, but rejoicing today because the deep purple colour has returned, how's that? Does anyone know this timber? if so, can you ,,,,, PLEASE EXPLAINE?

[J.F. Custom]

Hey Rocket,

In a single word - 'Oxidization'

There may be others who can give you a more scientific explanation but basically the fresh cut timber reacts and combines with oxygen which gives it the colour.

You'll find many, if not all timbers do this just not as dramatically as the Peltogyne (Purple Heart) does. Paduak is another lievely example from the top of my head.

After cutting, the purple heart looks a drab brown. Leave it a day and it colours up. You should find it gets bolder and more colourful over the next few days if not weeks too. The sad news is eventually it will return to its drab brown - unless it is sealed well under a finish. This will prolong it's return inevitably? Time will tell...

This is one thing to watch with timber as extreme as the Peltogyne species - you need to leave it deliberately to oxidize after cutting or even finish sanding before applying a finish for best colour.

Cheers,

Jeremy.

[Deano]

Hey Rod,
As purple as it was when we chucked it through the thicknesser? I thought that would be the case.. glad to hear it.

Dean

[Allen]

The Cocobolo that I used for the bindings on the latest guitars was the most dramatic change in the shortest time that I've seen. Scrape the surface, and it was a pale light orange. Within a couple of hours it had turned that deep red / orange.

Sitka Spruce is another one that changes fairly dramatically when exposed to UV, giving that nice honey blonde color.

It really is something to keep in mind though when designing with the color as part of your theme, that it may not be there in months, or years to come, leaving you with a bit of a disappointment. So the purple fret board that you have today, in all likelihood is going to end up the drab brown of the freshly milled piece.

[vandenboom]

I have been meaning to put a post up on the Purpleheart that Rocket is talking about. I suspect he got it from Matthews Timber in Vermont. I bought 3m of it recently - they have quite a lot on the racks. And it's not too bad cost wise which surpised me given that is is heavy and from South America.
I saw it in one of Stu's electrics (neck centre lamination) and it looked great.
Frank