Rare exotics and edible fruit woods

@Friedrich9 Hi.
If @Big Ry turns down cuttings from the Purple Wattle, I'd also certainly be interested. (Though there may be a line I need to get behind. Haven't looked yet.)
Live edges and funky inclusions are fine by, depending.
Thanks!
--JB
 
Big Ry said:
Yeah i might be interested in that too. I've had good luck baking purple heart to retain its color. Been about 10 months since I first tried, and it hasn't lost color yet!
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Seems the secret is to avoid sunlight. I made a tv stand with my dad years ago that has a Purple Heart face frame that has held its color pretty well.
 
SA-Motors said:
Hi @Friedrich9 thank you for cutting the yarran for us. I would be interested in the purple wattle if you have enough for an 18 inch spindle blank the size I need. I would probably also like a bowl if you have one that could make a bowl about 7 to 8 inches in diameter and 2.5 inches tall.
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@SA-Motors i measured, it was unfortunately only about 17” long. The material I currently have won’t make a bowl that big. I’m thinking when I’m done cutting 5-6” diameter and about 2.5” tall will be the biggest. I may get a piece that big one day. My guy only seems to get a little bit every few years. But I can keep an eye out. It’s protected now much like Waddywood and purple gidgee. So it’s mostly old fence post and pieces form old wood collectors. In addition to it being a super slow growing desert species. Takes a 100+ years to get any decent size to it. But coming back from my rant, if a smaller bowl blank would work for you, I can see what size I can get
 
Hi @Friedrich9 thanks for thinking of me! Please give scoutdog first preference over me. I’m so thankful already for all the pieces you’ve set aside for me. Once you’ve cut for everyone else if you happen to have a 5 to 6 inch bowl blank left, I would love to have it. Thank you!
 
Friedrich9 said:
Seems the secret is to avoid sunlight. I made a tv stand with my dad years ago that has a Purple Heart face frame that has held its color pretty well.
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From all the research I've done on it, purpleheart seems to largely respond positively to sunlight. The sun turns it purple, and so the prescription to fix brown purpleheart is to put it in the sun. That said, there's something like 13 unique species that are called purpleheart, and from what I've heard some of them behave in the opposite manner where sunlight turns them brown. Of all the purpleheart I've purchased, I've only ever had the kind it turns purple in sunlight. I've had some that responds better than others, but it's always been sun that helps.
 
Big Ry said:
From all the research I've done on it, purpleheart seems to largely respond positively to sunlight. The sun turns it purple, and so the prescription to fix brown purpleheart is to put it in the sun. That said, there's something like 13 unique species that are called purpleheart, and from what I've heard some of them behave in the opposite manner where sunlight turns them brown. Of all the purpleheart I've purchased, I've only ever had the kind it turns purple in sunlight. I've had some that responds better than others, but it's always been sun that helps.
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That’s interesting. I’ve heard putting in the sun for a few hours can enhance the color, but long term the UV fades it. I’ve got a good amount, maybe I should do an experiment
 
Friedrich9 said:
That’s interesting. I’ve heard putting in the sun for a few hours can enhance the color, but long term the UV fades it. I’ve got a good amount, maybe I should do an experiment
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Perhaps that's correct. I really don't know. I've struggled to get a definitive answer on the topic, and I've only been woodworking for 1 year. So I don't think I've had the long term experience required to even test it myself. I have also never put any purpleheart directly in the sun. All the purpleheart I've used is kitchen items, so it only gets indirect sunlight from the windows and they probably have uv blocking film on them anyway. I've put pieces outside of my shop for a few hours to deepen the color, but that's the extent of my experience with exposing purpleheart to direct sunlight.

Whatever the case, purpleheart fading to brown or gray seems to be a universal complaint. In the cutting board groups I'm in, everyone always says to just throw it outside for a couple hours to bring it back. I was digging around on the topic last summer and found 2 guys on YouTube who suggest that baking purpleheart in the oven will preserve the color long term. One of the guys in particular did his experiment over a course of years and has it broken down into a 3 or 4 part video. What he ultimately determined was that (a) the baking process preserved the color in his pieces, and (b) baking it causes the purple color to be uniformly distributed throughout the piece (so it's not brown when you cut it). I've now baked purpleheart twice and so far my experiences align with his. Some of my pieces responded better than others, but all responded. Some are even cartoonishly purple lol

I also decided to do a similar test with a whole host of other exotic species including all the "heart" woods with the exception of brownheart, but I don't think i baked them long enough. Few changed color at all. Off the top of my head:

1) orangeheart (chakte viga) got slightly darker
2) yellowheart didn't change (it did darken another time I tried to bake it though)
3) greenheart didn't really change
4) redheart (chakte kok) didn't change
5) bloodwood got marginally darker
6) padauk gained more contrast (black streaks become more pronounced). I've baked padauk twice with the same result.
7) leopardwood got the darkest of all but it was largely superficial. It also foamed up out of the end grain.
8) blue mahoe went from blue to greenish blue
9) verawood and Argentine lignum vitae went from green to yellow and leaked out brown sap that started smoking lol

I had something like 15-20 test pieces, so that doesn't cover everything. Ones that surprisingly didn't change at all include bubinga, east Indian rosewood, and Argentine osage.
 
Big Ry said:
Perhaps that's correct. I really don't know. I've struggled to get a definitive answer on the topic, and I've only been woodworking for 1 year. So I don't think I've had the long term experience required to even test it myself. I have also never put any purpleheart directly in the sun. All the purpleheart I've used is kitchen items, so it only gets indirect sunlight from the windows and they probably have uv blocking film on them anyway. I've put pieces outside of my shop for a few hours to deepen the color, but that's the extent of my experience with exposing purpleheart to direct sunlight.

Whatever the case, purpleheart fading to brown or gray seems to be a universal complaint. In the cutting board groups I'm in, everyone always says to just throw it outside for a couple hours to bring it back. I was digging around on the topic last summer and found 2 guys on YouTube who suggest that baking purpleheart in the oven will preserve the color long term. One of the guys in particular did his experiment over a course of years and has it broken down into a 3 or 4 part video. What he ultimately determined was that (a) the baking process preserved the color in his pieces, and (b) baking it causes the purple color to be uniformly distributed throughout the piece (so it's not brown when you cut it). I've now baked purpleheart twice and so far my experiences align with his. Some of my pieces responded better than others, but all responded. Some are even cartoonishly purple lol

I also decided to do a similar test with a whole host of other exotic species including all the "heart" woods with the exception of brownheart, but I don't think i baked them long enough. Few changed color at all. Off the top of my head:

1) orangeheart (chakte viga) got slightly darker
2) yellowheart didn't change (it did darken another time I tried to bake it though)
3) greenheart didn't really change
4) redheart (chakte kok) didn't change
5) bloodwood got marginally darker
6) padauk gained more contrast (black streaks become more pronounced). I've baked padauk twice with the same result.
7) leopardwood got the darkest of all but it was largely superficial. It also foamed up out of the end grain.
8) blue mahoe went from blue to greenish blue
9) verawood and Argentine lignum vitae went from green to yellow and leaked out brown sap that started smoking lol

I had something like 15-20 test pieces, so that doesn't cover everything. Ones that surprisingly didn't change at all include bubinga, east Indian rosewood, and Argentine osage.
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What temp do you bake them at? I want to try this lol. I’ve microwaved green bowls I’ve turned to dry them out.
 
Friedrich9 said:
@ScoutDog are you looking for casting material?
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Good morning! Actually, no, I do not cast. I make my art from (among other ideas) imperfections found naturally in the wood. Sometimes I can see something from a particular piece online, other times it takes living with the pieces for a while before I see the possibilities.
I'm eager for bark inclusions and tortured, gnarled specimens that some woodworkers discard as unusable. Minimum size is ~3/4" square by 5-6", depending.
Happy to share photos of finished works if interested. Thanks!

So, what have you got laying around the shop? :foto:
 
Friedrich9 said:
What temp do you bake them at? I want to try this lol. I’ve microwaved green bowls I’ve turned to dry them out.
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This is the video I was talking about. It's part 1 of a 3-4 part series.


In that video, he has 12 test pieces of purpleheart. He bakes 4 @ 250°F, 4 @ 300, and 4 @ 350. And the 4 pieces in each temperature group get baked for 30min, 60min, 90min, and 120min. He ends up recommending 350 for 60min.

The first time I attempted this i was trying to be cautious, so I only did 300 for 45min. That time I baked 2 sticks of purpleheart, 1 stick of padauk, and 1 stick of yellowheart. All darkened pretty good, so I thought i had selected a good temp and time. I was actually originally only going to do 30min, but I was monitoring the color and didn't see much change so I pushed it to 45min.

I used both the baked and unbaked pieces to make a color gradient serving board for my wife for our 5yr anniversary in November. This board has 11 unique species in it, by only the purpleheart, yellowheart, and padauk got baked (and it was only half of each that I baked). As you can see in the photos, the baked pieces are noticeably darker. Both the unbaked and baked pieces have retained all color to this day, but that board is covered in shellac, tabletop epoxy, and oil poly lol

Late winter of this year I baked purpleheart again. This time I was baking two 18" long pieces of 8/4 that were about 6" wide. Given the size, I decided to do 300 for 60min. These ones really didn't change much in shade. They were already very purple to start. I probably would have gone longer than 60min, but they began leaking out oils big time at the 60min mark (make sure you use junk cookie trays! ).

I used these pieces of 8/4 baked purpleheart to make a kitchen helper stool for my daughter. The finished pieces were treated with a penetrating varnish made of oil poly, raw tung, and mineral spirits. Then after curing I topcoated with satin acrylic poly. It's been about 3-4 months, and these still look exactly the same as the day I built them.

Photos 1-2: These show the results of my first bake at 300 for 45min. Unbaked pieces are next to baked pieces for comparison

Photo 3: this is some offcuts from the purpleheart in the first bake. I cut into them a few months later to show someone online how they remain purple throughout.

Photo 4: the serving board I made with the first batch of baked (and unbaked) wood

Photos 5-7: the kitchen helper I made my daughter using the second batch of baked purpleheart (300 for 60min).

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Big Ry said:
This is the video I was talking about. It's part 1 of a 3-4 part series.


In that video, he has 12 test pieces of purpleheart. He bakes 4 @ 250°F, 4 @ 300, and 4 @ 350. And the 4 pieces in each temperature group get baked for 30min, 60min, 90min, and 120min. He ends up recommending 350 for 60min.

The first time I attempted this i was trying to be cautious, so I only did 300 for 45min. That time I baked 2 sticks of purpleheart, 1 stick of padauk, and 1 stick of yellowheart. All darkened pretty good, so I thought i had selected a good temp and time. I was actually originally only going to do 30min, but I was monitoring the color and didn't see much change so I pushed it to 45min.

I used both the baked and unbaked pieces to make a color gradient serving board for my wife for our 5yr anniversary in November. This board has 11 unique species in it, by only the purpleheart, yellowheart, and padauk got baked (and it was only half of each that I baked). As you can see in the photos, the baked pieces are noticeably darker. Both the unbaked and baked pieces have retained all color to this day, but that board is covered in shellac, tabletop epoxy, and oil poly lol

Late winter of this year I baked purpleheart again. This time I was baking two 18" long pieces of 8/4 that were about 6" wide. Given the size, I decided to do 300 for 60min. These ones really didn't change much in shade. They were already very purple to start. I probably would have gone longer than 60min, but they began leaking out oils big time at the 60min mark (make sure you use junk cookie trays! ).

I used these pieces of 8/4 baked purpleheart to make a kitchen helper stool for my daughter. The finished pieces were treated with a penetrating varnish made of oil poly, raw tung, and mineral spirits. Then after curing I topcoated with satin acrylic poly. It's been about 3-4 months, and these still look exactly the same as the day I built them.

Photos 1-2: These show the results of my first bake at 300 for 45min. Unbaked pieces are next to baked pieces for comparison

Photo 3: this is some offcuts from the purpleheart in the first bake. I cut into them a few months later to show someone online how they remain purple throughout.

Photo 4: the serving board I made with the first batch of baked (and unbaked) wood

Photos 5-7: the kitchen helper I made my daughter using the second batch of baked purpleheart (300 for 60min).

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@ big ry that’s beautiful work. Thank you for sharing. It’s fun to learn something new. Now I’m going to get yelled at by my wife for baking wood lol. I already get yelled at for using the microwave for my bowls. She made me get a microwave specifically for that 😂
 
ScoutDog said:
Good morning! Actually, no, I do not cast. I make my art from (among other ideas) imperfections found naturally in the wood. Sometimes I can see something from a particular piece online, other times it takes living with the pieces for a while before I see the possibilities.
I'm eager for bark inclusions and tortured, gnarled specimens that some woodworkers discard as unusable. Minimum size is ~3/4" square by 5-6", depending.
Happy to share photos of finished works if interested. Thanks!

So, what have you got laying around the shop? :foto:
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@ScoutDog I’ll probably start another forum for you. But I would love to see some of your finished work if you got pictures
 
@Big Ry heres what I have for you right now.
Ironwood wattle, gidgee, buloke, spear wattle. Wandoo, boonaree, Belah, and the Yarran board. Look right?

IMG_6628.webp
 
Friedrich9 said:
@ big ry that’s beautiful work. Thank you for sharing. It’s fun to learn something new. Now I’m going to get yelled at by my wife for baking wood lol. I already get yelled at for using the microwave for my bowls. She made me get a microwave specifically for that 😂
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Thanks! Yeah, I did my baking when the wife was out or asleep ha ha. I made sure to cover the bottom rack with cookie sheets. And I also covered the top rack with cookie sheets to help evenly distribute the heat (we have a 3 rack oven, so I could actually do this). The first time I baked was problem free. The second time I got purpleheart oil all over the middle rack and lower pans. It was surprisingly difficult to get the PH oils off the rack. I used baby oil, which is just mineral oil with scent. The verawood sap was easier to remove, though it burned and smoked really bad while baking. Fortunately I only had the tiniest block of verawood in there.
 
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