Purple Heart?

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Laidback1

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Anybody worked with Purple Heart for back & sides? I'm finishing up a mahogany and Sitka guitar for my oldest daughter and getting ready to build something for my youngest. She wants a tenor ukulele that's "purple". Anything I need to know about working it? Does it bend OK? Is it "oily" and tend to bleed into the other woods? Etc.
Any help appreciated!
Mark
 
Purple heart is pretty easy to bend. I'm building a Soprano for my step daughter out of purple heart now. Purple heart is different in that when you sand it it will turn brown and sometimes it takes a few days for it to get back to purple after it oxidizes. Keep it mind it can split pretty easy so it's a good idea to reinforce the sides after bending.
 
It's a nice wood to work with. Often can be found with figure in and sounds nice, reflective and balanced.
 
Folks,
Thanks for the info! Where did you get your Purple Heart? Have checked most of the luthier wood sources and they don't seem to have it (at least on their webpages)
Mark
 
I got some from internet search.

Another option is to use a figured maple and analyne dyes. This really pops the figure, and the colors our very bright. If your daughter wants something REALLY PURPLE, this might be the way to go. You can get water or alcohol soluble dyes, and a tiny bit makes a lot of dye. Experiment on scraps.

Anne Flynn
 
Anne,
That's an interesting spin on things. Gotta think about that!
Thanks for the idea.
Mark
 
2008-05-06 003.jpgHere is a pic of a dyed maple back (not yet assembled, obviously). It is a "Teal" dye. I imagine purple would be equally eye-popping.
 
I started to make a set of handgun grips from the stuff in my youth and it nearly burned out my Dremel. That is some hard s**
 
Status,
Picked up a couple of Back & Side sets of Purple Heart from Waldron and they were delivered last week. They were great to deal with and it was packed very well for shipping!

A couple of questions:
1) What is a good initial thickness for Purple Heart Back & Sides? I realize that every piece of wood is different with stiffness characteristics, but just wanting an idea of thickness that you typically take it down to

2) How long would you let the wood acclimate to my shop environment before using? The RH in my shop is 50% and the wood was delivered from Tennessee (not sure what their typical RH would be)

Looking forward to getting started.

Appreciate the help!
Mark
 
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