Glen-L.com

Hello,

Has anyone ever used purpleheart(Peltogyne spp) as decking wood?

I still have some excelent wood in stock and would like to plank the deck with it combined with panga panga (black wengé) striping.

Is it possible?


greetings

I would stay away from Panga Panga. I made the mistake of building an electric guitar with it...wonderful to machine, sands smooth as glas, but it has naturally occuring silicon deposits that DO NOT COME OUT. They turn yellowish under finishes and look like blemishes. I thought I was buying wenge, but it was panga panga. If I have time tonite, I'll post a picture of what it looks like....I would use regular wenge...I love that wood. Doesn't purpleheart eventually oxidize to a rich brown over time? I'm not certain it will stay that color for long, especially in the sun as boats tend to be. I know in guitars, we plan on it changing color over time, like padauk and bloodwood will.

_________________
Ken Hundley
http://www.nocturnalguitars.com

So, my big brother was playing guitar and I figured I'd try it too.
- Stevie Ray Vaughan

Thx for your tip on the panga panga!

To answer you on the discolouration of purple heart: In the flooring industry we use an old trick to fix the colour.
In fact after sanding purpleheart gets a dirty brown colour but if you clean it with citric acid before varnishing the colour comes back.
It will slow down the building proces for sure but i'm going to make a test on a scrap piece during the week because i dont know what it will be like with an epoxy coating.

I will surely post the results


greetings

As I mentioned, I loved working the stuff, cut nicer than wenge, sanded smooth as all get out, but you could see these little "oil" spots in the wood....pure silicone deposits. If you finished over them, this is what you see.....this is one coat of Zinssers Bullseye Sanding Sealer. Looks terrible, which was disappointing. I was excited about these guitars. Now I just use them as practice and tool setup for various other operations.

_________________
Ken Hundley
http://www.nocturnalguitars.com

So, my big brother was playing guitar and I figured I'd try it too.
- Stevie Ray Vaughan

thx forthe reply,

It's a real pitty for the yellow markings in the wood otherwise would be a real nice thing.

so i am takingyour advise and leavethe panga panga alone, wengé costs like gold around here so im not sure if i am going trough wit the idea, maybe i could use UV carbonised oak wood instead but then i should test if the epoxy will bond to it first.

If anyone has some tips for black spacers they're welcome


Jorre