My understanding is that UV light causes it to turn brown. Sanding it will
turn it back to purple. I have used exterior finish with UV inhibitors to
keep it purple.
max

On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 08:14:19 +0100, Juergen Hannappel
scribbled:

220grit writes:

Hi, I'm making some varnished rope bins for a sailboat deck out of
purple heart and mahogany.
The ph looks fabulous when I get it but after I sand out the planing
marks and mill it the purple color fades to kind of a dirty gray. What
am I doing wrong? Heat from the orbital sander? Is there a way to
restore the color? I'm kind of new to this. Thank you for your time.

Wait. The Purpleheart is not purple inside, it becomes so when exposed
to light, so after milling you expose fresh, unpurpled wood.
After a few days it should be fine.

Like Juergen said, wait, it'll turn purple again soon. However, on
some purpleheart, the colour might fade after a few years. No way of
telling which kind you got, as far as I know.

Luigi
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