Purple Heart oxidation "Qs"

[Tim Beauregard]

Howdy,

Last night I turned pen barrels from purple heart. Never woreked with it before, but I have heard that you "turn off" the purple and it gets brown. Then I know you're supposed to wait until it goes purple again before finishing.

My questions:

What is a typical amount of time one has to wait to start seeing purple again?
Do I need to let air circulate?
Does sunlight or incandescent light speed things along?I am patient, but would like to have an idea. Also, I like to put barrel pairs in plastic bags (the ones that the pen parts come in) but won't for these if I need to let air get to them.


Aside:
Turned a maple burl pen this morning and it is really nice looking...a little like "marbleized" paper. Turned a pair of cedar barrels last night but had a chip come out of one. Glued it back in. Then when almost done shaping another chip came out. So I scrapped that one (couldn't find the chip to glue back in). Finished the other of the pair though. Cedar grain and color look nice and I embellished it with a couple of rings burned in with a piece of wire. Will post pics when I get home today.

Regards,
Tim B.

[Jim Hinze]

When I turn a purpleheart pen, I'll give it a 30 minute suntan and it resumes it's violet purple color...HTH

[Richard Gillespie]

My wife loves the color purple in almost all it's variations. For Christmas, I gave her a Purple Heart pen. It was among a group that I did just after learning how. About a month later I learned another finishing method that gives me better results. Initially, the new pen was a shade of brown different then the first one, but she wanted it anyway. I told her I felt that it would also turn purple to match the first one.

I just looked at both pens and their coloration is the same. Even though the second pen has two coats of CA glue and one of gloss lacquer the UV rays did their job and changed the color. You can wait for the color change before finishing if you want; it appears its going to happen anyway.

[Corey Hallagan]

Tim, no experience personally but from past posts from guys that work in it, you can just plan on it darkening again and soon. No finish available will really protect it from UV.

Corey