Purpleheart color modification and preservation (Part 1) 

Ok, so I know this video is a year old and Ben likely won't see it, but HOLY S**T! I bought a 6"x1"x12" piece of purple heart from one of these exotic hardwood dealers because I thought it was the coolest thing ever (very new to wood and had no idea what is out there). Well it was a dusty brownish mauve, at best, barely considered purple-ish, but I thought I'd give it a try... and... To my shock and amazement, the wood came out the most beautiful royal purple, it's absolutely amazing, thanks BEN! I wish we could post pictures, I'm so grateful for this video.

Dude, I just want to say, "Thank you!" Your video was very informative, I followed your logic and the results turned out to be spectacular! I also threw in a piece of padauk just to see what would happen out of curiosity, and it just got darker if anyone was wondering. Was hoping to pull more red from the natural orange, but nah, just got darker and more brownish, but the purple heart is simply amazing. Will never not use this technique again. Thank you!

This man is a scientist incredible work thank you

Ingenious! Thank you for figuring this out and sharing it. What a difference it makes.

Good stuff. Thanks for taking time to do the experiment so others don't have to. Very helpful for my current project.

Thank you for the quick response, this is my first time working with it, I wasn't sure how to proceed to put a finish on my project. Thanks again have a great day.

Thanks for the info and great video. I had no idea baking it would bring out the color like it does. Makes for a nice knife handle.

I am about to use purpleheart in a project and I was wondering about deepening and darkening the color. This is a fantastic experiment and I may use this for my project.

very cool video and informative. Thank you! and good luck with all your videos and projects

Invaluable information. Thank you.

Cheers, worked like a charm. I sanded the wood beforehand and I feel like the baking made the woods texture more uniform, suppose it might've shrunk a bit too. Exposure to air seemed to be of no consequence, put the wood on parchment paper lined rack and the bottoms looked the same as the tops.

Excellent vid! My boy and I bought a short plank of purpleheart this afternoon and I plan to saw some of it into pen blanks. I was wondering about its "colour-fast-ness" and this vid really helped. I'll bake up a few pieces this evening and see how it goes. Thanks!

Thank you! Baking a bunch of purple heart right now! My hubby asked whether I didn’t want to do an experimental piece. I have no time for that! 🤣

Superb info,thanks Ben- about to embark on a purpleheart project & was concerned about colour longevity.Will now be baking it first!👍🏻

Great experiment, exactly the info i needed, thanks!

Thnx for your effort. Great knowledge.

Enjoyed your video. It explains why my drum sander turns the wood so dark. It heats up the wood and draws more oils out and the oil is what’s turning dark purple like a crayon.

Years ago, I worked for a musical instrument maker that used Purpleheart , along with other exotic woods. The company would place the Purpleheart bodies in florescent booths for hrs. I don't remember the time frame, however this helped maintain the purple in the Purpleheart color. I never saw an instrument that had lost is color after being placed in a florescent booth, even yrs later.

Cool video! It would be cool to figure out a way to keep it purple permanently!

Thank u for all the info good stuff.. I was saying don't cut the spoon 😲 .. But I know u u did it ..i like your wooden spoon. 😄

I like your roasted wood experiments! Purpleheart is well suited to video presentation, especially against a maple backdrop. Well shot! I imagine contractors field plenty of call backs on purpleheart projects due to oxidation-related color changes. Contractors...bookmark this video. Or better yet, show them this video before starting a purpleheart project! 😀

Hey Ben, Great video here, I learned a lot of information. I am just curious here if you applied any finish to that spoon? I am curious if any finish is needed after baking, provided that there will be no contact with soaps, and mostly just hands (for example a tool handle or a guitar neck). Thanks!

Thank you very much dear sir.

Dude even had a control piece, what a legend.

Unfortunately I found this video after glue up. So I put my picture frame in the dryer on a rack, since I wasn't sure how 300 degrees would affect glue. 1 1/2 hours made a big difference. Thank you!

I'm curious as to how your better half responded to her favorite spoon being cut in half?? Actually, very interesting treatment heat treating purpleheart to maintaining color. Gonna try it.

Great video and congrats on the success. I'd like to know if, despite the spoon being split in half, did the marriage survive? (j/k)

Just saw your videos great information. I'm making a bandsaw box with purple heart and Ash, I like the idea of putting it in the oven for one hour, but I'm wondering if the Ash will burn or change ? Do you have any answers about that? Should I have put the purple heart in the oven before gluing the Ash in? Thanks for any info. Jimmy

Ben I loved you video on backing the purple heart wood so I gave it a try. I’m kinda behind the eight ball on my project trying to get it finished. I used a cut off piece (4x5x1/2) at 350 for one hour. It came warped and twisted. I loved the color though and when I cut it the color went all the through. How would you prevent the warping, maybe raise the temperature from 250 to 350 in 30 minute ingredients. Just a thought. I will give it a try myself.

Subscribed!

I have a pile of sawdust on my garage floor that says he's wrong about the default or inner, fresh-cut color of purpleheart, It's definitely purple. And it definitely oxidizes to grey/silver with time. Although pots that I turned 20 years ago, finished with shellac & wax and kept out of the sun, are still purple.

Funny tonight was my first experience with purple heart. Like you said i cut into it and was disappointed. I red about putting it in the sun and I thought why not just hit it with a torch? Sure enough it turn deep dark purple.

I'd like to see you let the thiner in the jar evaporate and see the oil used on the wood 🤔

The oven is all well and good, but incredibly slow and, as other comments indicate, as likely to leech the oils out of the piece as deepen and distribute them. So allow me to posit the alternative that purist woodworkers are likely to find as offensive as professional chefs, but improves upon the process for all the same sciency reasons... ...microwave 30-60 second bursts, flipping the piece each time, and in 2-3 minutes (for 3/4" thick pieces), you have perfectly purple, evenly oil-distributed purpleheart

Thanks for that awesome vid! any advice on what can be done for pieces too large to fit in an oven? (working on a side table from purpleheart atm)

Great Video! I have custom made guitar with purpleheart fingerboard which matchs purple body finish so nicely, and I just love it. By the way, I think maybe you could just sand down the surface of your wife's spoon to reveal the inner color rather than cut it into two pieces :p

Where do you get your thicker purpleheart lumber? And what did you bake the wood at to make it purple? Also, what part of the lumber is the bark? I have 6’ of live edge purpleheart and want to do an epoxy resin board.

This is great for small pieces what do you do for large slabs?

I put a purple heart piece in the oven but it starts to do a cracking sound... anyone know why? Maybe its too dry? Thanks

Would a series of heat laps do to get the color all the way through the wood. My pieces at 30” long by 1 3/4” by 1 3/4” to be joined into a staff

Should post an update haha I'm curious as we are working with purple heart

you should put another wood stripe down the center of her favorite spoon and give it a good sanding. i'd pick a black wood personally.

Does thermally modified purple 💜 warp, twist or cup when heated for an hour at 350 degrees. Thanks for the best purple 💜 restoration video on youstubes. Appreciated.

@TheSnekkerShow hay i was wondering if you have done a peace of purpleheart that is kilm dried and still got the purple to come back

Hi friend, It is an interesting video. However if you could give me any ideas on vernishing process that could preserve the purple color for prolonged time. I am able to find some purple wood which could be selected for my furniture if you have some positive answers.

Great video! I'm making a purpleheart dining table. Large one that's made up of 5 boards glued together. Since I can't bake the table in an oven, I think heat gun will be best. However I'm worried about the heat undoing the wood glue! Does anyone know about this? Is it worth even trying carefully, or is too risky? I really want that nice deep violet color you've got here. One thing I read also suggested keeping it under a 100W lightbulb overnight.

Could you experiment by using a high powered UV light and various times of exposure

Great video~ I bought some purpleheart to make a keyboard suport pad.Your information is helpful ,but I only got the file knief and sand paper.Forget my poor english (from china.

Heads up, this WILL shrink the wood. Bake it before cutting to size. I did not do this. 2-1/4" width lost about 3/32"...

Just tried this on a project and wow... Went from a boring color to vibrant. Do you have an update on your board two years later?

What about glue? I’ve glued up two purpleheart panels (still small enough for the oven) - how will the glue react when in the oven at 350?

Do you think this would work with red heart as well?

I am making a paper tray out of purpleheart - the whole thing would fit in the oven. I want to figure out when to bake it, after cutting to size, pre-gluing, or as final assembly? I'm a little worried about warping the wood. Do you have any thoughts on that?

While this method can be effective in restoring the color of wood, it is important to exercise caution as it may cause significant warping of the material.

What would happen if you wrap your piece tight with foil before putting in the oven.

can i bake in regular oven? a already made box??

Here’s a crazy question for you. A wood like Purpleheart would be great for a workbench top for metalwork as it is so hard. What if we wanted to speed up the process off it going brown?

So absolutely this wouldn’t apply to live edge slags. Lol Congratulations on your ratings! Keep it up..

My knife is done. I tried the acetone wash and that hasn't made it more purple. Do you think I can bake it with the knife done (rivets, blade and all)?

careful not to overbake or go to hot watch it closley you can also sand on it and it stays purple.

Do you put the wood straight on the oven rack?

Ummm.....at 7:09, you are saying "after 30 minutes" but you are pointing to the 2nd (60 minute) piece of wood....?????

Will sanding after baking in the oven affect the color?

How do you bake them? Lay them on a sheet or something? On their sides, or?

Another weekend warrior woodworker told me to sand, wipe off with acetone, then set outside in direct sunlight for 3 hours. The repeat as necessary. Things that make you go hmmmmmmmm.... Anyone try this method? I can't wait to cook my purple 💜. Liked and subscribed. Appreciated 👍

At any time do you need to wipe the purple heart off with Mineral Spirits??

I rub it with lemon to make it a bit magenta

So I tried 350 for 30 minutes yesterday on some strips & unfortunately, most of them ended up warping after cooling. Any ideas or tips on how to avoid?

I would have sanded before ruining a perfectly good spoon! Also have you tried soaking it in different oils also to see if it absorbs/help darken the color?

Greetings from the uk tryed this with 8x1 and it developed cracks bit upset but live and lern thanks for the vid tho

Wow just wow. Was going to take on the challenge of an end grain cutting board made from African ebony and purple heart. Now I can keep that colour and just so happens I work in a bakery with a huge oven lol and iam a mechanic so I can run it on downtime to do big pieces hahaahahahahahah

Wish we had better visibility... cant see much.

Just did a deck in purple heart. I can't wait for it to not be purple!

I picked up some purple heart and tried this. It twisted to be almost unusable and sap boiled out of the grain. FYI

A Torch

BAD RESULTS! Per your video, I just put a couple of boards in the oven at 350. They were 1" thick, ripped to 2.5" and 15" long. After one hour, I found the boards to be pushing out a sappy resin; much of it came out of the ends, especially the bottom (I had the boards on edge), but also in random spots on the face surface. LOTS of smell, BTW. After they cooled, they look absolutely horrible, with some areas being a nice deep purple and some areas looking to be much LIGHTER than they started, like the colored resins migrated!!! I had done this before with a smaller piece, like you used, but with these larger pieces, the results were just terrible and I expect I will have to throw the wood away.

SIDE NOTE: Do NOT use this method when you have a glued up piece that you spent 4 hours hand carving/ etching. DOH! 20 minutes into the 350 temp I opened the door to see if the color had started coming back yet and noted that my glue joints had all but completely separated.

Try using lemon juice then varnish and let's see

1 hour is way too long. It brought out the oil in mine and ruined it.

Sprinkle some sawdust around... looks like those power tools are brand new. :-)

Aaawwwrrrrrrrr, so hard to hear what you are sayin!!!🤦🏽

I would not run that to the bandsaw to take something favorite of your wife's and destroy it is foolish you should have put it in the oven to see if it would return purple your mistake not mine