I did purpleheart outer stems on a canoe I'm working on. It is extremely hard. I had to cut it into strips about 3/32". I did break a couple. Glued it up with thickened epoxy and screws, no problem. It really looks great next to the reddish tan of the cedar strips. I think it would make a fantastic looking accent strip but because it is so hard it may be difficult to fair. After dulling the blades in my spokeshave and my block plane I broke out the grinder with a 36 grit disk, that took care of it.