Purpleheart:brawn and beauty

cabinetry, marquetry, accent, paneling, jewelry and specialty items, especially the butts of billiard cues.

The wood is strong, heavy, hard, extremely dense and amazingly durable. It is highly resistant to wooddestroying fungi and dry-wood termites. Purpleheart also displays high strength in bending, stiffness and crushing categories and moderate resistance to shock loads and in steam bending.

In its native lands, where long lengths of the tall, slender tree are available, builders are able to capitalize on purpleheart's physical properties. Uses include heavy construction, housing, bridge building, fresh water pilings, dock and pier work,

Story at a Glance

South American hadwood is both decorative and durable... violet color makes it prized in U.S. for fine tumed items high strength and resilience suits it to heavy duty construction in its homeland.

cladding, boat building, filter press frames and high traffic flooring, such as in gymnasiums. And its resistance to chemicals makes it a natural for chemical vats.

Yet there is a flipside to its denseness. The hardwood is difficult to work, with a moderate to severe blunting effect on tools. It also exudes gummy resin when heated by dull cutters, so is best run slowly through machines with sharp, high speed knives. Straight-grained material finishes well but tearing occurs in planing and moulding when the grain is interlocked or wavy. To achieve a smooth finish, a 15" cutting angle is needed.

It is hard to nail, necessitating pre-boring. But it glues, stains and wax polishes easily.

The wood dries relatively quickly, but care must be taken to remove all moisture from the center of thick pieces. Air drying is slow, with some end and surface checking or case hardening. Once the wood is dry, though, movement in service is minimal.

Decorative and durable, purpleheart has proven a versatile hardwood.