I'm currently building a Guillemot 17, and I'm almost finished stripping the hull and will soon begin work on the deck. I was looking for a "feature" wood to use in the double curve section of my deck pattern, when I saw a beautiful wood called "Purpleheart" at my local lumberyard. This stuff looks FANTASTIC. I was so excited to find such a unique wood, that I bought it and drove home before I realized that this stuff is harder than any wood I have ever seen! Now I'm wondering how I'm going to get it to bend, even with very small strips. The curves of the pattern aren't extremely tight, but I'd rather not break half the wood trying to learn the correct way to do this. Are there any tricks to bending wood this hard? Has anybody else used purpleheart successfully?

Thanks, Todd