dalton Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 hello all, I am new to this site but was inspired by the video on the end grain cutting board. I haven't done a cutting board since high school and since the one I made back then (30 years ago) was for my mom and she has been begging me to make a repacment for the last decade it seemed like a great christmas gift. as per usual I am behind and tring to finish before the deadline. (maybe one day I will learn to start such projects 2 weeks earlier but oh well).. here is my problem, my purple heart looks more like brown heart. I chose the purple heart because I thought the wood look so beautiful and I knew my mom would love it but it just looks brown. I thought that after sanding it the purple would come back out but I have sanded and sanded. started with 60 grit to level the board and worked up to 320. its very smooth but still very brown. how can I get the purple heart to look purple liked it did when I brought it home a week ago??????? thanks in advance for any help. dalton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtrust Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 Dalton, Much as it is counterintuitive, the more you sand it the longer you will wait for the purple color. The purple color of the wood will come back the longer it it exposed to light. Doesn't matter if you put a finish on or not, so don't worry about that. It's the exposure to light that causes the color change. You can see this immediately if you take a piece that has been laying around for a while that has become nice and purple. Run one edge thru a table saw and look at the cut edge. It will lose 90% of it's color. Leave it alone for a couple days and the color comes back. Neat, huh? Just an FYI, the end grain doesn't show the color quite as well as the face grain, but the light thing still applies. Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalton Posted December 23, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 don, thanks for the quick reply. I was afraid I had done something wrong! I just need to be patient (not my strongest quality) but I will endevor to do so. thanks for also letting me know that finishing it will not inhibit the purple coming out. I can get it all finished and under the tree. I am going to let it sit in the sunlight as long as I can before I wrap it. one other question... I read somewhere on the net in my searching last night that if you put the purple heart in the oven at 250 for about 15 minutes it will bring out the purple? is this true? I was worried about causing warping of the cutting board (mine is only 3/4 in thick) what do you think? dalton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtrust Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 don, thanks for the quick reply. I was afraid I had done something wrong! I just need to be patient (not my strongest quality) but I will endevor to do so. thanks for also letting me know that finishing it will not inhibit the purple coming out. I can get it all finished and under the tree. I am going to let it sit in the sunlight as long as I can before I wrap it. one other question... I read somewhere on the net in my searching last night that if you put the purple heart in the oven at 250 for about 15 minutes it will bring out the purple? is this true? I was worried about causing warping of the cutting board (mine is only 3/4 in thick) what do you think? dalton I have never heard about putting it in the oven. I doubt that 250 degrees for 15 minutes would do any harm but don't know that it would do any good either. I also don't know if sunlight or just room light makes any difference. I've never had any of mine in the sunlight specifically. In fact, some of the cutoffs of mine have never left the shelf in my garage, and they have all returned to a nice purple. It may speed up the process or not, just don't know. Maybe someone else does? I'd be interested if you do the oven thing, if it worked. Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Kersh Posted November 30, 2019 Report Share Posted November 30, 2019 I took brown colored purple heartwood and used a heat gun on it for a few minutes and it turned purple so using an oven might work I noticed when it was cut it was darker purple from the Heat of the blade that's why I tried a heat gun and it turned it a nice purple I would try it on a scrap piece first good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnG Posted November 30, 2019 Report Share Posted November 30, 2019 Welcome to the forums Tony! Good info, but it’s not likely the OP will see your reply. The thread is 9 years old and OP has not been back to the site since then. Might be useful for someone else in the future though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marshalltjones Posted January 29, 2020 Report Share Posted January 29, 2020 Sunlight does bring out the purple. Try makingboff a part of a brownish pieve and expose for different times..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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