Hey Todd, I used purpleheart for a keel strip, stems and bow/stern deck center lines on my double paddle canoe. I wound up ripping the stuff to about 3/32 to get it to bend over the stems. I also made the keel strip narrow.....about 1/2". If your curves aren't too bad, you should be able to make the strips conform, if you use narrow strips. Good advice here on the other posts. Take care if you use staples to hold the strips....this stuff is rock hard, and those narrow strips might tend to split. Leave the sanded purpleheart exposed for a bit before you 'glass.....I was told that sunlight will help to give the freshly sanded wood back its nice purple color. My accents turned out nicely.....very dark purple under the epoxy. I'm well pleased with the results, but it was not without some frustration........as in...bend, bend, bend....CRACK!!! Have a seat in the moaning chair, rip it thinner and give it another go..... garland

: 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