purpleheart wood

[Bud Duffy]

Is $2.50 a bf a good price for purpleheart. My bro has a friend who has several pallets of this stuff and i am thinking of buying a good bit of it.

[Kevin Gerstenecker]

The best price I have seen for Purpleheart is $4.25 pbf, in 4/4 size. I would say that $2.50 is a decent price.

[robertfsmith]

Warning!


I smell a stealth Gloat!!!

Heck yeah that is a good price!

Nice find!

[Jim Young]

Glad there is no place around here with that price. I thinks I would get in trouble again.

[Dale Thompson]

Bud,
$2.50/BF is a very good price for Purpleheart. The question is: Do you want to be burdened with Purpleheart? It tears and chips for absolutely no reason except that it wants to--and exactly at the wrong time for the poor sap trying to make something with it.

I've been able to get away with it on a lot of pens and pencils. However, when I tried YoYo turning, my 3" blanks ended up as 2" product. They work great but BLAST those tearouts.

I won't even comment on tool wear, but I will say that my lathe chisels are sharpened to something just below that of honing for this stuff. It's a waste of time--dull, sharp or in-between, the "chip" will always fall out on the last finishing cut.

Lastly, I met a guy at my closest WW'ing store who had a Purpleheart Mantle Clock which he had made for his wife. When I asked him if he had had any problems, he sort of broke into a cold sweat. "If she only knew what I've been through! There are a lot of tearouts on this clock and I can't fix them right--but--six months of trying is long enough!!" The clock looked great to me.

I've heard that Purpleheart is great for exterior stair treads in the areas where it is native. It lasts forever. I've also heard that there are over eighteen species of Purpleheart--some "machine" much better than others. Maybe I've just been on the wrong end of the genetic spectrum. :confused:

$2.50/BF is a GREAT price for Purpleheart!!!:)

Dale T. (This asylum will NOT hold me FOREVER!!):cool:

[John Cole]

I just paid $4.75 bd ft at the weekend !!!:mad