riffster Posted June 11, 2008 Report Share Posted June 11, 2008 (edited) I saw a post recently that someone had a paduak body, which looked beautiful! I read somewhere that if you use these woods and you want to keep the original color, your gonna have to use a finish with UV inhibitors. Does tru oil have those inhibitors? Can you use tru oil then put some sort of small protective coating on them. Options are open, I am just curious. What have you guys used for a finisher on these woods? Edited June 11, 2008 by riffster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riffster Posted June 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2008 (edited) Oh, here is a thread on purpleheart. Now what about paduak? Edited June 11, 2008 by riffster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riffster Posted June 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2008 (edited) I'm such a doofus. here is a thread on protecting woods from UV Rays. Edited June 11, 2008 by riffster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scab Posted June 13, 2008 Report Share Posted June 13, 2008 I'm really interested w/ the purpleheart.. (same question) What type of finish do you use to help keep the petina at a minimum. I've recently built a 1x12 cab out of purpleheart (which has already started to brown) and one of my buddies was building a purpleheart body that was also curious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wohzah Posted June 16, 2008 Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 Now I have heard that browning of purple heart is from the reverse of uv, that if left in the sun it turns more purple. I am not really and expert though I have worked with it, fortunatly it came in the color I wanted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supernova9 Posted June 16, 2008 Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 Now I have heard that browning of purple heart is from the reverse of uv, that if left in the sun it turns more purple. I am not really and expert though I have worked with it, fortunatly it came in the color I wanted. That's just not correct. More exposure to UV turns purpleheart brown, not more purple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted June 16, 2008 Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 (edited) Now I have heard that browning of purple heart is from the reverse of uv, that if left in the sun it turns more purple. I am not really and expert though I have worked with it, fortunatly it came in the color I wanted. That's just not correct. More exposure to UV turns purpleheart brown, not more purple. I don't know that wohzahs statement is 100% wrong as a few people will tell you directly after sanding or cutting when it looks all pale, that if you put it in the sun for a bit it will bring that heavy purple back fairly quickly and I've done this with a piece I have and it happened. I did a lot of asking and looking around about this when I first got a piece and honestly I still don't know for certain. I've seen pieces of indoor furniture turn that same brown after a time, without really any significant source of UV. I think UV probably plays apart, though I have a suspicion that oxidation plays a role as well. There are a lot of different ideas out there I've read from people who use it all the time to people who have been harvesting the trees themselves for a long time, nothing really I've found to be an exact answer. Not to mention that some of those people have found different pieces or trees that act different from each other. The UV thing seems the most suggested, though I don't really think its the whole reason. I think that probably a nice UV clear coat will offer the longest solution as you are sealing it to some degree and offering UV protection. Who knows though, I've heard and read so many different opinions when I looked for an answer and many conflicted so, ?? is what I came to. J Edited June 16, 2008 by jmrentis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted June 16, 2008 Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 Agreed. There seems to be a lot of confusing contradictory information on what does and does not brown PH, and no absolute information. Either that, or the good information is being undermined by the poor. I would defer to the opinions of people who have made instruments that have maintained their purple colouration. That is solid reliable proof. There may be factors outside of the finishing that may affect long-term hold on the purple colour, although it is outside of my experience to opinionate on them as i've not tried any with long-term success as of yet. Without opening more cans of worms, has anyone had any experience in treating PH with muriatic acid to brighten it up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riffster Posted June 27, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2008 (edited) Here is a guy that makes dulcimers and uses PH regularly. His instruments look fantastic. He says that when the PH is cut it is purplish gray, and then turns the wonderful purple color. You can read about his experience with PH Here. And here is the guys experience with paduak. So, according to this builders experience, the purpleheart gets more spectacular. While the paduak does oxidize but still has a rich red color. Edited June 27, 2008 by riffster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RFR Posted June 28, 2008 Report Share Posted June 28, 2008 This is probably NO help at all in solving the problem, but I will share my experience anyway. I have over the years built many instruments out of Paduak. I have yet to find something that keeps the color. I have tried Nitro, Poly, various oils, water based Lacquers, Urethanes, and it all still turns that deep brownish red color. Roman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riffster Posted June 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2008 Well, I guess the only way of finding it out is to take a piece of paduak and go through the same sanding and finish applying process and leave it in the sun to see how nice it will age. If I use it I want it to look good with the hardware, theme etc since I have not seen a oxidized piece in front of me . But I have been researching for the past couple hours drawing on others experiences and you (Roman) seem to have the same experience as others. what hardware did you use for your instruments? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RFR Posted June 28, 2008 Report Share Posted June 28, 2008 Most all of the Paduak instruments I have built had gold hardware. Although I am in progress of doing a Paduak/flame maple explorer right now and it will have chrome. Roman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpeg2 Posted June 28, 2008 Report Share Posted June 28, 2008 Well, I guess the only way of finding it out is to take a piece of paduak and go through the same sanding and finish applying process and leave it in the sun to see how nice it will age. If I use it I want it to look good with the hardware, theme etc since I have not seen a oxidized piece in front of me . But I have been researching for the past couple hours drawing on others experiences and you (Roman) seem to have the same experience as others. what hardware did you use for your instruments? I actually tried this experiment - took some freshly sanded pieces of Padauk & tried a few different finishes (Tru Oil, Teak Oil (which was supposed to have some UV resistance) and Spar Varnish (meant for boats). I left them in the back window of my car for a few weeks. The only one that didn't turn brown was Spar Varnish - which is what I ended up using... Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riffster Posted June 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2008 (edited) Cool. I'll keep that in mind. I'll read up on how to finish with it. I thought gold hardware would look nice with it. Thanks for helping out with the experience and questions. I guess paduak is misunderstood because its just not used as much as other woods. Edited June 28, 2008 by riffster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riffster Posted June 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2008 I am starting to think that I would just be delaying the inevitable with the paduak. Here is where I read it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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