# Planing Purpleheart



## Jim Moe (Sep 18, 2011)

When planing Purpleheart and using small cuts I still get chipping on the surface. Anyone got a cure for this or is it just a fact of life?


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

Are you using sharp blades? Going with or against the grain? What do you consider a "small cut?"

G


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## Jim Moe (Sep 18, 2011)

GeorgeC said:


> Are you using sharp blades? Going with or against the grain? What do you consider a "small cut?"
> 
> G


Yes. The blades are sharp. Just ran 50 bd.ft of soft maple with excellent results. Have tried going with the grain in both directions with same results. Have run it through under 1/32 and still get chip out. I got this from a guy that had it in his basement shop for many years and wondering if it gets extreamly hard after aging a long time.


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## sawdustfactory (Jan 30, 2011)

Purpleheart is one of the hardest woods out there, and it very quickly dulls blades due to the high silica content. Try some fresh blades, 1/64 or less passes and see if that helps.


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## Kevin07 (Feb 19, 2009)

I know its not what your looking for but id bet a spiral cutterhead would leave a good finish on it. When i switched from 3 staight blades to the carbide spiral cutters it was amazing how much of a diffrence it made, with figured wood i would have no tearout at all.


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## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

Jim,
the only other thing I can think of that works well is to find somebody nearby with a drum sander. Plane the purple heart almost all the way and make the last few passes through the sander. 
Mike Hawkins


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## BWSmith (Aug 24, 2010)

The words Sharp and Purpleheart......probably shouldn't be used in the same sentance?If they are...it'll only be for a fleeting moment.We "grind" the suff here with big sanding equip.It has some heat issues(WRT belts),but once thats understood it ain't too bad on the sanders.




*Purpleheart is one of a few woods we aircool the belts at point of contact.It is also a VG idea when using BS's.....you really need to clear the swarf from cut.


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## Jim Moe (Sep 18, 2011)

BWSmith said:


> The words Sharp and Purpleheart......probably shouldn't be used in the same sentance?If they are...it'll only be for a fleeting moment.We "grind" the suff here with big sanding equip.It has some heat issues(WRT belts),but once thats understood it ain't too bad on the sanders.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 Ya. You and Firehawk kind of confirmed my suspicions that this was no ordinary species with easy maching abilities. I will take it down some and then belt sand it the rest of the way. What is your beginning grit suggestions?


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## Cliff (Feb 5, 2012)

jimmomech8 said:


> When planing Purpleheart and using small cuts I still get chipping on the surface. Anyone got a cure for this or is it just a fact of life?



Wet the wood.


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## Bob Willing (Jul 4, 2008)

firehawkmph said:


> Jim,
> the only other thing I can think of that works well is to find somebody nearby with a drum sander. Plane the purple heart almost all the way and make the last few passes through the sander.
> Mike Hawkins


+1 to Mike. This has been my experience as well because I tried to plane down to 1/8 and it will make a mess of the wood. As far as drum sanding start with 80 grit in light passes and do the final with 120 grit, that is why I bought a drum thickness sander so I could make thin wood regardless to type and also to nearly eliminate snipe. The drum sander will give you longer pieces of wood where you would normally cut off the snipe; I call it my wood stretcher. Snipe is very difficult to eliminate unless you are very cautious while planning, and make sure you are supporting the board correctly. If you have a table extension or rollers it will not help if the board is warped. Before I bought my own planner the shop I bought my wood from had snipe as well, they also had spiral heads and I would notice cutter marks left from planning. My Dewalt planner produced better results. Now I purchase my wood from a supplier that sands their wood, but the down side is hidden pieces of sanding grit and when I plane the boards to thickness it will cause nicks in the blade. Talk about a ketch 22!


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## Alex Grubbs (Apr 3, 2021)

Purpleheart is ridiculously hard. I bought a bowl blank of it when I first started turning and it destroyed my tools very quickly before breaking apart on the foot I had turned. In my experience it clogs sandpaper very quickly too. As mentioned above it has a lot of silica so always wear a mask when working on it.


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## Tony B (Jul 30, 2008)

I had built an executive office many years ago with a purple heart conference table. Dont remember the exact size but it was big and heavy. Took 4 big men to move the conf. table top. Fortunately, i was in good favor of a local furniture manufacturer. I went to him to flatten the top. He used a wide belt sander and it used 2 new belts. It came out perfect. 
Planing purple heart is difficult due to a difficult grain and being very dense.
It is currently no longer in my favor. Too difficult to work and turns really dark after about 10 years.


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## B Coll (Nov 2, 2019)

sawdustfactory said:


> Purpleheart is one of the hardest woods out there, and it very quickly dulls blades due to the high silica content. Try some fresh blades, 1/64 or less passes and see if that helps.


Never worked with Purpleheart, but I have worked with Teak, which also has a high silica content. If they are similar I would suggest using carbide knives. I learned planing teak that after about 5' my hss knives were shot.


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