Purpleheart

[budoweapons]

Hello all,
I jooined this group for one main reason. I am a woodworker and blacksmith. My work is somehwat unique in it's niche. I do this profesionally. the problem I am having is that for some reason Purpleheartis becoming more and more scarce from my local suppliers in the for that I need it- 8/4 I am wondering if anyone here knows of a source other than: THE HARDWOOD STORE or East WAKE county hardwoods that is near durham or Raleigh where I can find Purpleheart in the configuration and at 7' lengths.
My current supplier (the first one CAn get it but they won;t order it unless I order 1000 bd ft of it. I don;t know what their problem is because I bought just about verey single stick of it they had last year but for some reason they won;t bring it in. so i guess I need to find another source either in Nc or outside Nc where I can have it shipped to me. It's really sad because my customers are the ones that will suffer because now I will have to raise my prices on the items I make and sell with purpleheart. Just goes to show- businesses anymore just don't care about their smaller steady customers.:BangHead:

if you have any information regarding this please feel free to email me directly at info@budoweapons.com

Thanks!

Ed Green
http://www.budoweapons.com

 

[DaveO]

I have recently seen 8/4 Purpleheart at Klingspors Woodworking Shop in Raleigh, saw a little a while back at the Raleigh Woodcraft, maybe Toolferone can give an update on the stock. And it is worth calling Capital City Lumber, as they may also have some. For 4/4 PH stock all those places almost always have it in stock. You can find many suppliers in our NC Wood Suppliers list on the left of the page.
Dave

 

[Canuck]

Welcome to the site BUDOWEAPONS!

Would love to see some ics of your work. Especially the purpleheart applications.

Have fun and post often!

Wayne

 

[MLB3164]

Welcome Ed to NC Woodworker Wall Lumber in Mayodan lists that they carry 8/4 purpleheart. Give them a call and see what they have in stock. Hope this helps.

http://walllumber.com/default.asp

Marty

 

[erasmussen]

Welcome to the site.
If theres purpleheart in NC someone here will know about it:icon_thum

 

[Kyle]

I would try http://worldtimbercorp.com/ which is in your neck of the woods. All of these exotics are unsustainable and eventually will be scarce or non-existent except at exhorbitant prices. World Timber is the main supplier of exotics to most of the outlets here in NC including Klingspor and Internet Lumber.

I studied and taught martial arts in this style for quite a few years when I lived in Raleigh http://www.cuongnhu.com/index.asp and used Black Locust as my tambo. It would shatter oak and put a real hurting on rattan and builds Muscle too!

 

[Nice Figures]

We have purple heart in 8/4 how much do you need and when? We are in Chapel Hill
Give me a call and we'll take care of you.
Paula Labelle
Nice Figures Studio and Lumber Sales
919-923-1433

 

[budoweapons]

hmmm. makes me want to reconsider using another species. But so many of my customers love what I do with PH it certainly would be a shame to have to quit offering it.

 

[NCPete]

Kyle, thanks for all that information! Suppose purpleheart would thrive in my backyard? darn scrub oak sure does!

 

[budoweapons]

Thanks DaveO. I don;t really care to do business with Capital City Lumber. their customer service and concern leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.
as for the others, I do business with Doug Chisolm often at Woodcraft. The last 8/4 Ph they had in stock I bought. That was last year.
I have not been to klingspor yet but i suppose it is worth a trip out there to see. But i seriously doubt that they have 8/4. It just isn;t a common size for most to use and is probably the reason I am having such a hard time finding it now.
Thanks again!

Ed

 

[budoweapons]

Kyle!!! Thanks man!!! I just got off the Phone with Matt over at world timber. $3.00 bd ft. for PH. Now makes me wonder why I have been buying ot from these other folks for so long at 5 and 6$ a bd foot. Now if I could just find someone as a steady supplier of 8/4 HICKORY - any ideas on that too?? NOT PECAN but HICKORY. I had some joker last year try to pass off pecan to me as hickory. I was not amused.

Thanks again.

Ed Green

 

[budoweapons]

Kyle,
inworking with Hickory I run across some nice pieces and some bad pieces sometimes like every species. I like the air drried hickory in particular. Most times it doesn't have the splintering characteristics in my experience.
I also stick with it because many of my customers prefer it due to it's close proximity to Shiro Kashi in characteristic. In North America it is the closest I have found to it. I used to use white oak but swore it off from my supplier because of issues I had with two bo staffs that snapped within 1 hour of use due to honey combing that came from improper drying. so i swtiched to Hickory. the problem with the hickory though is that unless I can find a sawyer that has a good stock of it or trees to cut of it it is **** hard to come by in 8/4. I used pecan in a couple of applications before but the coloring is waaaay different. I haven't come across tool grade pecan though and wouldn't know it if I saw it. I do know that the pecan I usedbefore was waaaayy too soft to use in my applications of martial arts weapons. Other reasons are logistical. I use what I can get locally. I can go pick it out by hand and make sure of what I am getting most times. this is an important thing that sets me apart from many that do some of the same things I do. I actually have spent almost two hours picking through wood piles to be sure that the pieces I am getting will yield the results that I want with little waste. There is also the shipping issue that costs within that realm of reasons.

 

[Kyle]

I agree. Ultimately the application of the wood is up to you and your customers and you have satisfy that niche.

Hickory is very much like oak has about a dozen subspecies and many are not suitable for your application. I believe the shagbark to be the best for tool grade applications but I will stick to my locust tambo and eventually make a persimmon bo staff <evil grin> that will put a hurtin' on 90% of the conventional mass produced weaponry.


I believe in this area of NC there is at least 6 species of hickory I have sawn and 20+ sub species of red and white oak.

 

[NCPete]

...eventually make a persimmon bo staff <evil grin> that will put a hurtin' on 90% of the conventional mass produced weaponry.

I've got three persimmon sticks in my bag right now! 'course, they are the 30-odd year old Titleist woods I learned to play golf with. Not PAINTED, so the beautiful wood shows through!

 

[DaveO]

Budoweapons, I was at Klingspor today and they have several 8/4 boards of PH, under $5.00 a BF, nice looking stock.
Dave

 

[NCPete]

How long Dave? Most of the stock I see in there for exotics is short turning stock , not even long enough to make a han bo...? IIRC, about 35 inches?

 

[toolferone]

How long Dave? Most of the stock I see in there for exotics is short turning stock , not even long enough to make a han bo...? IIRC, about 35 inches?

Actually I was there too. Dave is right there are pieces there 8 feet long and 10 to 12 inches wide.

 

[NCPete]

those should be plenty long....

 

[DaveO]

Yea, what Tom said :-D :-D :-D :-D

Dave

 

[D L Ames]

Yep...........what Dave and Tom said. I was there with them and Klingspore had plenty of PH stock on hand. The 8/4 was priced at $4.89 a bf.

D L