Features of purpleheart when used in Bokkens and such

[JarkAira]

Hi,

I have been pointing my woodcraft skills towards different bokkens. I have done many out of woods natively available in Scandinavia and also some out of hickory, which is currently my preference.

It seems like I have already "mastered" those woods and am looking for other more fancier woods and purpleheart came as an option because of the looks but I am no sure how it is compared to other woods. Density and hardness are not the only features of the wood used in training weapons especially if they get contact. For the safety of user I am more interested in how it breaks when that eventually happens. Hickory for example wont break in pieces like some other more harder woods which is mainly the reason I like it. After I switched to hickory weapons I have not sent parts of my weapon flying across dojo when it breaks.

So if someone has used a weapon made out of purpleheart or just happen to know tat wood particularly well I would like to have your insight.

 

[Grenadier]

Purpleheart is an excellent wood for bokken, as well as for most Kobudo weapons (bo, jo, tonfa, nunchaku). It's a very hard wood, and has fairly good flexibility, and looks absolutely beautiful.

It doesn't break easily at all, but when it does, it breaks off into a number of smaller splinters, and this is something that you stated you wanted to avoid.

I've found that you can minimize the splintering situation by making sure that your weapon is well-oiled. I always coat my kobudo weapons, regardless of wood type, with at least two layers of walnut or polymerized tung oil. When these coats dry, and are sanded lightly with some 00 steel wool, you get a nice, hard coat of oil that really helps keep the weapon together. When I did have a purpleheart bokken break, it was one that I had treated with walnut oil, and it simply cracked, instead of exploding into pieces.

If you're going to be doing a lot of impact, though, nothing beats hickory for its bang / buck, as well as its safety when it does break.

 

[Grenadier]

On another note, if you're going to be working with purpleheart wood, please make sure that you wear goggles and a breathing mask. A lot of these tropical woods are notorious for having dust that can lead to carpenter's cancer.

 

[Ken Morgan]

http://ejmas.com/tin/tinart_taylor_1100.htm

Personally I only use hickory.

 

[JarkAira]

Well thank you for the link with a lot useful info. That answered virtually every question that I had about different woods in this use and also to some questions that I did not have thought about yet. Gives a good starting point for my journey.

Also thanks for pointing out that some of the woods are carsinogenic as I had only thought that using mask and goggles only applies for wood saturated with some chemicals to prevent rotting or to give some other features. Must have been because that those woods that are naturally carsinogenic or that cause allergy are so rare but saturated wood is quite often used and people are aware of the health issues working with those.

I have a full headmask with a possibility to pressurize it but the pressurizing unit is permanently mounted in the room I use for painting cars and to laminate fibreglass and carbon fiber. Have to check how long the hose can be in order to operate well so that I could take an bit longer hose to get it to the next room as I dont want to sand anything in the place where I paint as the fine wood dust would stick to ceiling and lights and then drop from there to a surface being painted.

I have done few bokkens by laminating them from two pieces of wood and that also seems to give a good way to build bokken that does not splinter. The one which is already broken was split in half from the first wood and the second piece just bend backwards still having both halves being stuck to it from the glued area.

For me it seems like that one could use something fancy looking hard wood in the edge piece and then have a hickory or some wood that bends behind it. In that way when the first one does broke it has a change to stick to the second one instead of flying. Just my theory at the moment and I must look if I can find more information about laminated wooden weapons or try to build and break more of them myself. Laminating is not even as hard as some might think. Of course it adds more work stages and needs a bit more equipment and knowledge but if you already have a working area for wood in your garage you most likely have everything you need. Also you can build hybrid weapons from wood which would not suit well as in their own or that would be too expensive to build for real use.

I think I will order some purpleheart and put it to test. If it gives a warning before it is going to break I might use it for myself and give some as a gift for those who can notice when their weapon is about to shatter and understand to not use it anymore. Some people just tend to use all of their gear until it breaks even though they have noticed that it will break in next use. I try to look for signs when my weapons are in condition that cannot be repaired and dispose them when they meet that condition or break them alone to test how it breaks. It gives a different feeling when watching weapons burn in fireplace instead of just logs. It almost makes you feel like a conscientious objector.

Thank you again Mr. Morgan and Grenadier.

 

[chinto]

On another note, if you're going to be working with purpleheart wood, please make sure that you wear goggles and a breathing mask. A lot of these tropical woods are notorious for having dust that can lead to carpenter's cancer.

the sawdust from sanding is toxic when dealing with Purpleheart. always wear a good mask if you work with it.