Official Luthiers Forum!

I am building a guitar for a young lady who loves the color purple. I have already used to purplewood as the headstock vaneer. I would like to line the box with it. Has anyone done any purplewood bending? I would love to know if it is advisable or should I just stick with the herringbone and black I originally planned.

If you mean for binding, it bends just fine. Very splintery though as you've likely noticed.

Darrel,

Thanks for that information. Yes, I have already experienced that splinter factor. Do you soak or not when you bend it?

I give it just a light spritz of water with a sprayer and bend on a 350F pipe giving an additional spritz if it starts to scorch.

If you're talking about Purpleheart, it bends quite well. Don't get it too wet, though.

Ken: The Purpleheart that I used seemed to be a bit squirrley when sawing strips,bent ok,but the color tended to darken and be more muted on the finished guitar.
Tom

_________________
A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Ken,

Like westca said, purpleheart will change over time. The vibrant purple when freshly cut doesn't last. With exposure to sunlight it will oxidize and take on a darker, more brownish tone. The purple is still visible, just muted. I could be wrong, but you might be able to slow the colour change if you use some uv blocking finish?

-Jake.

Yes, purple looks so kool until... yes oxidation. Keep it in the case amap. I have experimented with bleaching it & it bleaches well then bring back a lighter purple with ngr stain & it should last a lot longer. Just don't tell the customer what you did.
Mike

_________________
Mike McNerney

I bent several sets of purpleheart binding until I could mix and match a set I liked. I didn't get it figured out yet, but it seemed like more heat made a deep, vivid purple. But then, too much heat cooked the color out completely, leaving it gray.

And, in my experience, fresh cut purpleheart is gray, but turns back to purple over the next couple of days. I'm in the middle of finishing it right now (Tru-oil). It finished dark, but still purple looking. We'll see how it looks in a year or two. My other experience with PH is endgrain cutting boards. It finishes dark brown and stays that way for at least a few years.

Mike

_________________
Mike Lindstrom

Thanks to all the advice. I am about out a week out from the binding process so I have time to consider options. However, I think I will finish without modification and see what happens. This is a present for a young lady who loves purple and will be thrilled just knowing the wood is called purplewood.