Purpleheart grain colour

[martin.pearson]

As in the title I am after some expert advice/guidance from you experts. I bought a pack of exotic hardwood blanks when I first started to do some hand turning & there was a purpleheart blank in the mix. It had the purple colour to it & I didn't think anymore about it. My Daughter inlaw took a fancy to the pen I made with it because of the colour. That was a while ago now & I hadn't turned any more purpleheart until recently.
My Daughter inlaw (again lol) asked me if I could make a pen set for a friend of hers who is getting married next year & could I make them from purpleheart because her friend also liked the colour.

Looked on ebay & found someone with good feedback selling blanks so ordered a pack of purpleheart blanks, the seller said that he generally cut his blanks when ordered & the pen blanks might not be the right colour when they arrived but if after turning they were left for a few days before finishing they would change to the purple colour.
Sure enough over the next couple of days they started to change & within 4 or 5 days they didn't appear to be changing anymore. The blanks I bought were cut with the grain & i couldn't seem to find cross cut blanks in the places I looked. So as I was still experimenting I bought a bowl blank so I could crosscut my own pen blanks. Cut a strip off the bowl blank to make 2 crosscut pen blanks & went ahead & turned one of them, this was just after I posted about putting a curve on the Celtic pens so was a good few days ago now.
This one doesn't seem to be changing colour like the other blank did so I am now wondering if it has something to do with the amount of end grain showing. I don't know if it will change but at a slower rate or if that is the colour it is going to stay. At the monent it is just sitting on the bench in the workshop, quite happy to leave it for as long as it takes as the wedding isn't until next year or if there is a way to help speed up the process like direct sunlight or something.

 

[Penpal]

Make up your mind with or without colour I get the feeling if it changes one reason it could default in the future.

Peter.

 

[Bammer]

UV light helps, let them sit in the sun for a while

 

[martin.pearson]

Thanks, I can do that at home, workshop only has one small frosted window lol

I forgot to add the picture lol

 

[Morse]

I don’t know if this is an “old turners” tale.
One of my clubs members said to use a heat gun across the blanks.
He reckoned it worked. ?

Dave

 

[martin.pearson]

I don’t know if this is an “old turners” tale.
One of my clubs members said to use a heat gun across the blanks.
He reckoned it worked. ?

Dave

Will give that a try & report back latter thanks Dave. Got some offcut bits I can stick a bit of heat into rather than the actual turned blank lol.

 

[Bucks]

I’ve used a heat gun to bring out the purple before, it really does work, just be carful you don’t burn the wood.

 

[Math16]

I always "cook" purpleheart. I dont keep large stocks of wood so when i buy it in i generally need to use it quick.

I use a mini blowtorch. Move across the wood quickly and build the colour gradually. It can and will go black if you are not careful.

Picture below is a freshly turned blank on the left and a lightly heat treated one on the right (with a dad of CA). I lucky had this in the archives on my phone as someone else asked the same a while back.

Rjb woodturner had a handy video on YouTube for it as well.

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

 

[martin.pearson]

Thanks for the replies, will give it the heat treatment at some point during the week when I am at the workshop.

 

[wm460]

I’ve used a heat gun to bring out the purple before,

Obviously my shed is not hot enough.