Purple stain?

[Ken_N]

I cut up a piece of maple to make some purfling.  I got it out of the wood bin at work.  Most of it is new wood; mostly oak, they use it under bundels of 50' long bars of steel;  but I look for grey ones, and lighter ones.  Found some good block wood, and some sycamore I use for linings (need some more of that).  There was nothing unusual about the wood,  Beileve it or not, it has a really fine light flame to go with the nasty brown smudges.  Anyway, I noticed that I was getting some purple gunk on the balde when I got half way down.  Then I noticed that one side of what I cut off the other end had purple stains on it.  No stains anywhere else.  Very strange.  

 

Any ideas on what it could be from?  

 

 

[Michael_Molnar]

The metal in the rods may have reacted with the tannin in the wood. Iron for instance can do this.

Well, that is my guess.

[Ken_N]

Sounds reasonable to me, Michael.

[Violadamore]

Fungus, maybe?

[Addie]

I had some Australian(?) stuff that looked like maple, but turned everything purple, including my fingers. Don't know what it was...

[nathan slobodkin]

Sycamore for linings is an odd choice. 

[Renée]

I had some Australian(?) stuff that looked like maple, but turned everything purple, including my fingers. Don't know what it was...

 

The stuff that we grow down here and call Maple bears no relation, or similarity to European maples.

[Roger Hargrave]

It is called 'purple haze’; Jimmy Hendrix had a Stratocaster made from the stuff. He wrote a song about it when his hands turned purple after a blackcurrant jam session.

[Ken_N]

Sycamore for linings is an odd choice. 

 

Nathan, I tried spruce, and I just kept snapping them.  I had this thin board of really light old sycamore, and sawed a 2 mm wide strip and tried it.  It bends fairly easily, much easier than the spruce, and the interlocked grain makes it virtually impossible to snap them.  Another plus that isn't readily seen, is that they look cool, almost like a well split bridge blank.  Vertical lines on the straight part, and horizontal lines where it is cut back.

Jimi could play a mean guitar.  But, now I can't get the image of him licking blackbery jam off his fingers out of my head.

 

[welshman]

wood like maple get a variety of fungal stains - one of which is called "purple stain", considered a defect in the wood industry and caused by exposure of the wood to moisture - like stacked under a ton of steel bars,

 

might be possible to cut it out or work around it but it is likely to spread upon further exposure to moisture and possibly air.

 

reese

[welshman]

http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/forestry/wooddr2.pdf

[Ken_N]

I do see stains where the bars were sitting, and squished the wood down.  Ususally it is more like a rust color.  I think it probably seeped into the wood through pores, and is only in a few spots.    Maybe the saw cut through one spot on one side, and spread it on to that one piece.  It does look like the water played a big role, as it looks blotchy, like a coffee stain or something.  The planed strips show no signs whatsoever of discoloration.  I started planing dry, and then read something I saved by Darnton about wetting it down first.  I did that, and the pieces curled a lot less.  I took the pile of curled ones, and soaked them in the sink, and straghtend them out some.  Still no sign of purple anywhere.    At least it's only purfling.

Ken

[Ken_N]

Reese, I think you may be right about the fungus.  I went through the shavings upstairs in the light.  Light is a beautiful thing isn't it?  I had to take the picture wight on the windowsill, because the camera didn't want to focus.   I found a coupleof shavings that have it.  What will it do?  Can you kill it off?  Would the dye treatment kill it, boiling, and chemicals and the such?  Will going through the batch, and pulling out suspects help?  It isn't a big deal to find another peice of wood,  but is it that much of a threat?

[Pete Moss]

It is called 'purple haze’; Jimmy Hendrix had a Stratocaster made from the stuff. He wrote a song about it when his hands turned purple after a blackcurrant jam session.

You know, that's exactly what my dad told me. I never believed him. I suppose I didn't give the old man the credit he deserved. I guess I owe the dad an apology.

Cheers,

Pete.

[Roger Hargrave]

Ken, whatever you use for linings it should be light weight and easy to bend and cut. With some woods like spruce it helps if it is cut close to the natural split line. If not you may have trouble trimming the linings back. Some woods are also difficult to bend. Depending on the thickness and growth structure spruce can also be difficult to bend. You can see from Del Gesù’s work that he occasionally had trouble with bending and trimming back his spruce linings. Sycamore and beech have both been used in the past, but willow is probably the best. It is light, flexible and if cut close to the natural split it trims back very well. Poplar works in a similar way. Lime works well because you can cut it in almost any direction. It is always difficult to advise people working outside Europe. In Europe tradition has usually weeded out woods that don't work. On other continents different woods may works eaqually well. 

[tango]

It is called 'purple haze’; Jimmy Hendrix had a Stratocaster made from the stuff. He wrote a song about it when his hands turned purple after a blackcurrant jam session.

Hi Roger

I always ask to me why the title of the son. 

Thanks

[David Burgess]

It is called 'purple haze’; Jimmy Hendrix had a Stratocaster made from the stuff. He wrote a song about it when his hands turned purple after a blackcurrant jam session.

Didn't Prince also write a song and make a movie about Purple Stain?

[welshman]

Ken

more of a problem in live wood with active moisture in the cells - fungus feeds off the material in the cells, once dry should only be a visual problem, if the wood is really dry and stays that way using it probably not a problem especially for linings.

 

reese

[jezzupe]

Didn't Prince also write a song and make a movie about Purple Stain?

Ya and a follow up video about varnish patting...."when gloves cry", then there was "party like it's 1699"....ah the good old days

[jezzupe]

I believe this is a complex reaction between heat, sap and metal from the blade....seen this before too