How do you finish Purpleheart to keep it purple?

here are some pics of the knife i made with the purpleheart handle.
http://picasaweb.google.com/terry.dodson/PurpleHeartKnife#

The blade was made from a 2 foot diamater sawblade that was 3/16" thick. I cut it out with an angle grinder. The handle is made from Purpleheart wood with vulcanised black spacing material between the handle and the steel. It also has home made mosaic pins in the handle, they are aluminum tube with black epoxy between the tube and a brass square tube inside it that is also filled with black epoxy. The wood has a super glue finish and then buffed on a buffer. The blade is slightly hollow ground to help with weight and make it sharper. The balance point is about where the guard is.

Edit: I did heat the wood to 300 degrees in an oven for half an hour before i cut and shaped it. Next time i think i will go with 350 degrees, it is supposed to make the purple darker.
 
I used Watco Danish Oil - 3 coats - on a knife handle. I then followed this with a couple of coats of Watco Poly wiping varnish. You need to let the Watco Danish Oil dry for 3 days before using the poly wiping varnish. The varnish is a satin finish and has some UV protection.
The knife handle looks good, but it hasn't been long enough for me to tell about the color over time.

I'll try this again, the next time I use Purpleheart.
The price you got was very good.
 
the armorall does work as UV inhibitor at least on padouk, purple heart should act the same. I have wood cabinet doors on wet bar that is as red/orange today as it was 7 years ago. Tip was found in book "25 top wood finishing secrets" by Fine wood working magazine. If you but armorall in the gallon jugs and read the label one of the last things mentioned is to use it on wood cabinets. It is like "liquid gold polisher" except that it has the UV inhibitor as an added benefit.
 
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