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Leon Sandstrom
05-20-2007, 12:54 AM
I just finished inlaying this picture, and after doing some sanding, my purple heart wood turned brown. The purple heart is on the cape and knees. Anybody have any suggestions on how to get the purple heart wood to turn purple again? I dont want to stain it, I really want the wood to be natural. Drawing needs some work, but until I can figure out the purple heart issue I am not going to start another one. If I even decide to do this again.

Thanks.

Jude Kingery
05-20-2007, 1:22 AM
Hi Leon,

That's nice work! I've only turned Purpleheart a few times, but did have success with sealing it the minute I finished sanding it - it did retain the purple color. I think exposure to oxygen is what turns it brown, oxidizes it? Someone else may have far more experience with it than I and chime in. But perhaps try sanding and then an immediate seal with something like polyurethane wipe-on and see if that doesn't hold the color for you. Just a suggestion to consider. Jude

Leon Sandstrom
05-20-2007, 2:06 AM
Jude,

Thanks for the reply, I have been trying just about everything to get the color back, but nothing seems to work. I still have a lot of details to raster in, shading and such. I think I will get on that tomorrow and settle with what I get. It very well may be the wood that I purchased. The centers of the wood is brown, but the edges are a beatiful purple. I cut the pieces from the purple sides. Maybe I should have cut from the brown and then it would have turned purple when I sanded it. Guess I will just have to try again. Having a blast with the engraver. This is only my 4th inlay to date. First one using more than 2 types of wood. This one has 8 flavors.

Dave Jones
05-20-2007, 2:07 AM
Put it in the sun. A few hours in the sun and it should be purple again.

Leon Sandstrom
05-20-2007, 2:10 AM
Thanks, I have nothing to loose at this point so I will give it a try first thing tomorrow. Kind of scared it would turn more brown in the sun though. Have you done this before?

Dave Jones
05-20-2007, 2:33 AM
I bought some purpleheart sheets (1/8" thick) last year. When I got them one of them had part of it purple and part of it brown, like a shadow from something resting on it. I stuck that sheet in the window for a day and it became rich purple and the shadow was gone.

Jude Kingery
05-20-2007, 2:38 AM
Leon,

Sure thing, you're welcome. This might give you a bit more information.

http://curiouswoods.com/wood--Purple-Heart--PH

Seems it is exposure to air that browns it, but I'm not sure. I just know once I sanded it and immediately sealed it, it did keep a nice purple color and that was two years after the fact, retained the color.

Best wishes,

Jude

Leon Sandstrom
05-20-2007, 12:20 PM
Was real cautious about setting it in the direct sunlight. Took it outside this morning on an overcast day. Still worried about leaving it in the sun rays, I put it on the table under a canvas cover on my deck. The humidity is really high this morning, so I wonder if that was the trick. Check it out now and let me know what you think.

Ray Mighells
05-20-2007, 12:53 PM
Beautiful piece of work. What overall size and how thick are your inlays?

Frank Corker
05-20-2007, 1:11 PM
Great piece and the colour change is amazing!

Leon Sandstrom
05-20-2007, 1:15 PM
The inlay dimensions are 16"X12". I used 1/8 inch wood pieces. After sanding, I am guessing I still have about 3/32 inch of inlay thickness left. The woods used are Padauk, Purple Heart, Walnut, Maple, Mahogany, Bolivian Rosewood, Cherry and Teak. I might make another one of these and use a brighter Mahogany and replace the boots with Black Walnut. Before I do that though, I have alot of fixing to do in the drawing. Still havent decided if I will raster in the shadows and small details in the pic. This was just a challenge to prove to a guy that it could be done. I am starting to like the looks of it now.

Steve knight
05-20-2007, 1:42 PM
There are two basic types of purpleheart the one you have turns brown right after it is worked and will turn purple again when it gets light. but later it will turn brown again and some finishes will do it pretty fast. Water based finishes will do it the least. The other type just turns a lighter purple when cut and then goes back to normal. But it tends to stay purple. But the first one is what most people seem to end up with. The one that does not stay purple has a more open pore and is not as dense and you find more curlies in it.

Bob Keyes
05-20-2007, 2:42 PM
Leon,

It's the UV that turns it purple not the humidity or the light. Just like cherry turning dark.


Was real cautious about setting it in the direct sunlight. Took it outside this morning on an overcast day. Still worried about leaving it in the sun rays, I put it on the table under a canvas cover on my deck. The humidity is really high this morning, so I wonder if that was the trick. Check it out now and let me know what you think.

Mike Null
05-20-2007, 3:46 PM
Great work
Just an opinion--I wouldn't raster anything on an inlay.

Larry Bratton
05-20-2007, 3:58 PM
Looks purple to me! Wow, what a change. That is also a beautiful piece.

Eric Allen
05-21-2007, 2:41 AM
That has to be one of if not the coolest pieces of work I've ever seen:) No offense to the other fine work here. Now I want very much to make one myself:)

Lee DeRaud
05-21-2007, 10:35 AM
There are two basic types of purpleheart the one you have turns brown right after it is worked and will turn purple again when it gets light. but later it will turn brown again and some finishes will do it pretty fast. Water based finishes will do it the least. The other type just turns a lighter purple when cut and then goes back to normal. But it tends to stay purple. But the first one is what most people seem to end up with. The one that does not stay purple has a more open pore and is not as dense and you find more curlies in it.Is one of them much oilier than the other? Purpleheart is the one wood I've found that absolutely refuses to cut cleanly with the laser...and several other people with more powerful machines report the same problem.

Obviously Leon isn't one of them. :p

Leon Sandstrom
05-21-2007, 6:02 PM
I cut it at 20% speed, 100 power and 500 frequency on a 45 watt epilog helix. The pieces were 1/8 inch thick. For the most part it made a pretty nice cut. I am sure most people know already, but elevating the pieces off the surface so there is air between the wood and cutting surface really makes a difference. If it doesnt cut all the way through the first time, I break out the belt sander and finish it off. The purple heart unquestionably was the toughest wood to cut. The padouk was the messiest. Machine got a nice cleaning this morning, at which time I noticed some spots on my last mirror. Not sure what that was from, but I could not get them off.

Carol VanArnam
05-21-2007, 11:17 PM
WOW I love the purple. Looks really nice. So when you cut the pieces out of different types of wood do you worry about the kerf? Do you just cut the pieces like .01 larger because you know the kerf will take up the extra space and each piece will be smaller and fit together just right.... (hope that doesn't sound confusing)...

Dennis Perry
05-22-2007, 3:32 PM
Hey Leon, Very nice piece. Your wood selection (contrast any grain direction) are great. Looking forward to seeing your next piece.

Dennis

Leon Sandstrom
05-22-2007, 8:55 PM
I keep the lines right on top of each other when I cut out the pieces. When doing inlay with a laser, I find it easier to keep a double outlind around the main pieces. If you look closely, you can see the maple outline around most of the pieces. The ones that I did not keep the outline around cost me when I put the pieces together. I believe this piece would be much nicer is it was inlayed on a piece of walnut and keep double lines around every piece to be inlayed. This would leave a small dark line between all the colors and all the pieces would fit much snugger. In order to get the picture to stand out, I would create an oval around the entire pirate. This way I would get a white oval with the pirate in the center and small dark outlines between all the different woods. Kind of confusing to explain. Let me see If I can find a picture of a skull I did. You can really see the dark lines. I want to fix the spaces in the pirate and try again.

Leon Sandstrom
05-22-2007, 9:19 PM
Here is my second inlay attempt. Pretty basic, but if you look closely you can see the dark wood that outlines the maple. This makes for a tight fit of all the pieces, and looks really clean. The pieces fit so good on the drawing, I actually had to tap them in place with a small hammer. The teeth were a real pain in the butt. They were so small I picked them up with a little glue on the end of a paperclip. Set them in place and tapped with a hammer. In the end, I think it turned out really nice. The guy I gave it to really liked it and that was the best part.

Dennis Perry
05-23-2007, 12:47 AM
Leon looks good!! here is on 36" 1,500 pieces. Use the contour tool set to your lasers kerf.

Dennis

65150

Leon Sandstrom
05-23-2007, 11:28 AM
WOW, that is a piece of work for sure. I have lots to learn, and will play around with your advice. The learning curve on the software is what takes the most time for sure. Thanks for the info.