Where to buy purpleheart as boards.

[Jelly]

Any suggestions on where I can get wide 1" boards of purpleheart and also 2" or 3" boards (width less crucial here), local would be good but I'm willing to make a very long drive if the price or material is right!

After last time I swore I'd never make anything out of solid purpleheart again, but I do love it's striking visual appeal (especially with sycamore or beech inlay)! Only issue is I've forgotten who I bought from last time, and the only people I can find now are selling turning blanks or off-cut sized pieces for knife handles etc.

 

[niagra]

http://www.exotichardwoods.co.uk/Woods_List/Purpleheart.asp

Robert at Timberline in Kent usually has some in.

Dario

 

[Eric The Viking]

Yandles keep it too, in a range of board sizes.

But like you, I hate the stuff, having tried to use it.

 

[custard]

Another vote for Timberline.

A couple of months ago they had some extra special Purpleheart called Highland Purpleheart, it was an incredible colour but it didn't have that coarseness of grain that you sometimes get with Purpleheart. I think they're out of stock on that now and are just down to the regular Purpleheart. But even with a finish that's packed with UV inhibitors, Purpleheart still ends up as nondescript Darkbrownheart within a year or two!

 

[Cheshirechappie]

http://www.exotichardwoodsukltd.com/Woo ... 20Species/ - not to be confused with Timberline - list 2" and 3" lumber, but not 1". They're a bit nearer to you, too - Chapel en le Frith in Derbyshire.

 

[whiskywill]

Purpleheart still ends up as nondescript Darkbrownheart within a year or two!

I must have a very different variety of purpleheart. I made this bouzouki about six years ago and the photograph was taken about eighteen months ago. It has no finish on it at all and lives fully exposed in a room with a large window.

 

[custard]

I must have a very different variety of purpleheart.

There's no arguing with your lovely photo, and maybe I was being pessimistic with my "year or two" timeframe, but eventually the laws of chemistry will re-assert themselves!

http://www.wood-database.com/wood-artic ... tic-woods/

After all, when you find a rough sawn board of Purpleheart that's spent some time in the distribution pipeline it's generally a nondescript dark brown, and you don't get that full vibrancy of the colour until you make a fresh cut.

 

[sploo]

Purpleheart still ends up as nondescript Darkbrownheart within a year or two!

I must have a very different variety of purpleheart. I made this bouzouki about six years ago and the photograph was taken about eighteen months ago. It has no finish on it at all and lives fully exposed in a room with a large window.

I was going to say, I've got a couple of boxes made from purpleheart; coated in only shellac and furniture wax, and they've stayed a nice purple colour. One is at least 5 years old. All kept indoors though, so no outdoors UV exposure.

 

[Eric The Viking]

I experimented during my "purpleheart obsessive" phase (I have children who like Miley Cyrus and similar "musicians").

I put some purpleheart shavings on a sunny windowsill. They went brown in a day or so, and stayed that way over the next few months (my wife eventually complained: it was our bedroom windowsill).

It was the type of purpleheart that stinks and oozes black goo and makes smoke when you cut it on a tablesaw. Obviously very desirable characteristics - I wish more species did that (not).

The only good thing was that the board offcuts made really nice flat weights to hold down my sheets of wet+dry in the drawer. I did also manage to scrape two slabs to be so flat they stuck together - you could lift the lower one by lifting the upper one sharply. But they've since warped and that trick no longer works.

Wonderful stuff, a bit like that edible corn "wotsit" packaging you get in Amazon shipments sometimes. It looks useful, it ought to be useful, so you hang onto it just in case...

 

[Jelly]

Purpleheart still ends up as nondescript Darkbrownheart within a year or two!

Maybe a bit harsh, it still retains a distinct purple tinge, but definitely darkens (it's a nice enough colour though), ostensibly application of dry heat around the 250°C mark prior to finishing acts to prevent the colour change... But I can see that introducing a whole host of other more serious issues.

In any case, my lust for solid purpleheart furniture has been tempered by the fiscal reality of sourcing 4" thick Meranti, Only piece I've been able to sour e so far is 17feet long and 12" wide... They won't sell a part length, and I'm likely to have to pay to have it machined too... On the upside, I'll have leg blanks for a whole house worth of furniture!

 

[Eric The Viking]

Of course, Jelly, if I'd stopped to recall you own a Sherman (and know how to use it), I'd have been far more polite about purpleheart. Probably...