Adhesion problems with Purple Heart?

[Danny Flynn]

Hi, I'm planning a project that would include long, thin strips of purple heart (edge glued) as a sort of accent, like I've seen on a lot of cutting boards on this site. Anyway, I've never worked with it before and I've heard of adhesion problems with purple heart, both with glue and finish. The project will be under a fair amount of stress, so I'm concerned about the glue joint failing. Also, will top coating with either a waterbase or NC lacquer be an issue?


Thanks in advance!


BTW- although this is my first post here, (and first of many, many questions I'm sure) I just wanted to say what a great forum this is. I've spent a lot of time using the search function here the last couple of weeks and it is by far one of the most informative forums on the net, as well as one of the most congenial.

[Michael Merrill]

I've been building several items for my bedroom that are maple and purple heart. One item is a full length mirror with purple heart moulding. I've been using titebond with no problems as yet but the project is only about 6 month old?

For finish I've been using miniwax natural oil stain, followed by wipe-on poly, I'm not an expert finisher.

[Chris Padilla]

Purpleheart has no special gluing nor finishing properties in my experience or that I've ever heard of. It isn't oily like Teak, which does present gluing challenges.

[Jason Brown]

I haven't had any issues with gluing purpleheart. I've laminated some strips of it up into canoe paddles before with boatbuilder's epoxy, and no problems.

However, in order to get that nice deep purple color, let it age a while before you finish it. Once cut, purpleheart seems to be more brownish in color than purple. Let it sit for a couple of weeks and it will "purple-up" nicely. Then go ahead and finish it.

Cheers,
Jason

[Nick Roper]

One new guy to another, purpleheart is one of my favorite woods to work with. I use it often in turnings and have only seen problems of joint failure when it is used with woods having very different traits, such as spalted or very soft woods that tend to have a great deal of movement.
One thing you might consider however, is that you should not expect the accent to maintain its purple color indefinately. It will not, but can be restored by a simple sanding. For this reason, I'd consider whenever possible an oil finish that can be easily re-applied after a quick sanding every few years. Keeping it out of sunlight will also help to delay the inevitable browning of the wood.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

I've made some end tables and a coffee table using purple heart for accents that are under some stess in the legs. Simple yellow glue was used with no issues. Also, polyeurthane was used as the finish with no issues or special preparation required. That was 15 years ago and counting.

I do remember that the purple heart smelled like dog poo though.

-Jeff :)

[Jerry Strojny]

I made a couple of jewelry boxes with purpleheart. Used yellow glue, no issues for me. One was finished with water based poly, the other with oil base poly, again no issues. Smells funny, looks great. Enjoy it.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

I vividly remember everyone checking their shoes. Then the accusations began.
-Jeff :)

[Danny Flynn]

Thanks for the replies.

From some reason I thought of purple heart as an oily wood, like teak. I plan on using it between mahogany and maple, and even though the mahogany is soft I don't think it will be too big a problem, because the purple heart will be thin. Maybe I should use a glue with some flex to it just incase?

I didn't realize it will brown with age. I need to put a fairly protective finish on this piece, at least more so than oil. Will it retain any purple at all? If not, as long as it stays darker than the mahogany I think it will still work. Also by using the search function I saw this thread where someone states not to use oil.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=28893&highlight=purple+heart

Anyway, that's a bummer if it's true because even though I wasn't going to use oil as a finish, I was going to use BLO to pop the maple, and figured I'd make it easy on myself and apply it over the whole piece, and use it to fill the pores on the mahogany.


Here's another thread I found where someone recommends Armour-All in order to block UV rays and retain the color- might give that a try on some scrap, but then I suppose I won't know if it actually works for awhile, huh?:o

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=29523&highlight=armor

OK, so right now I'm thinking I'll try the armour-all on some scrap and finish it, and if there's no issues I'll try it on the real piece. Or else I'll just scrap the purple heart all together and try something like bloodwood.:p


...and now that I think about it, filling the pores using sandpaper with BLO on the mahogany sounds bad- I don't want to sand the purple heart and have that bleed to the other woods. Maybe I need a better choice for an accent strip.

[Vaughn McMillan]

Welcome to the Creek, Danny (and Nick). To echo the others, I know of no issues gluing purple heart. The top and bottom panels on the pool cue case in this pic are about 3/8" thick, and the edge glued purple heart strips have coexisted very well with quilted maple and jatoba:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=33930&d=1142415518

I've also done a lot of cutting boards with thin strips of purple heart, and not problems to note.

If you are hesitant to use wet-sanded BLO to fill the pores of the mahogony due to potential bleed from the purple heart, maybe something like Zinsser SealCoat could be used instead.

Again, welcome...

- Vaughn

[Danny Flynn]

Thanks Vaughn. I'm glad you chimed in, because I got the idea for my design (and using purple heart) from this forum, and from some of your projects in particular, especially that pool cue case. I really dig it!:D

Are you suggesting the shellac to fill the pores, or to seal the purple heart to protect it? I'm guessing to fill the pores- by applying it and then cutting it back till they're filled? Probably safer than using the oil and sandpaper, but I haven't tried using a film finish to fill them before, and am a little leary. It always sounded like it would take a long time to do right, but maybe that's more with lacquer then shellac.

[Nick Roper]

Danny, the reason I like the use of oil for purple heart is because of the fact that it is very easy to maintain. Yes, it does deepen the purple color as will anything that magnifies the grain, however, it is a very simple matter to do a quick sanding of the accent and then re-apply the finish without the need to strip off the previous work.
As far as Armor All on my work. I use it on my Lear by the gallon, but I could see some problems using it on wood. IMHO Silicone + Wood = Bad