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Ran across an interesting article about wood color retention - long story short, it doesn't. But the article does talk about which woods turn what colors

https://www.wood-database.com/wood-arti ... tic-woods/

Below is Osage Orange when first finished already toned down from the freshly sanded version, the the same guitar 1-1/2 years later. The heel cap is boxwood from a neighbor's re-landscaping and it does not appear to have changed much at all.

Would be fun to see yours that changed

Ed

Looks like a year later it had a little accident too

That is quite a dramatic change. I'm not sure which one I like most. I do know I would be perfectly happy with the tobaco brown color though. Almost looks like a burst. I imagine in another year it will be all brown.

If you'd like to do your own finish / color change experiments take a sample piece of your chosen wood, and try different finishes on it. Then put a piece of masking tape over one spot on each different finish so you'll have the first color. Then tape the wood to a south facing window that gets lots of sun. Check it again in a year and check the amount of fade and color change. I used to do this with spruce, maple, ash, and mahogany samples that I worked with frequently. Got that trick from Michael Dresdner back in the 80's.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I may have posted this before, it was quite startling to me. I cut this slab(bottom pic) and couldn’t believe what I saw.
The top two pics are 24 hours apart.

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My memory is so good, sometimes I remember things that never happened.

Here is more Osage color change. Walnut back and sides with Osage binding. Neck is mahogany walnut Osage walnut mahogany. This is about a year after it was finished and has been out in the open the whole time.






Edit: yikes, I should have dusted all the crud out of the neck joint before I snapped the current pictures. You can see that the Osage is hard to distinguish from the walnut from a distance and the stark color differences in the neck lams have totally changed. I like them both but I miss the orange.
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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

The color change can depend a lot on the finish, too. I once made a 'sunburst' rosette using osage for the light and walnut for the dark parts. I finished the (osage) guitar with a water based finish I was trying out at the time. It came back a year later for re-finish; the back of the neck and the spots where it touched player were full of crud and felt like chewing gum. The osage parts of the rosette had gotten a lot darker, but the walnut had turned lighter, so the effect was reversed.

I think some wood changes color as a result of light exposure, maybe especially ultraviolet light, while some may just darken with aging, or as a result of air exposure.

This back set of Osage Orange has browned at the edges over the years while in a stack of wood under a bench. I doubt if the light penetrated there--I think it's oxidized as a result of the air circulation.

I also have a set of purpleheart which has remained purple over the years. Around the same time I got it, maybe a dozen years ago, a friend built a fence out of purpleheart. That purpleheart turned brown in a couple of months.

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

A fence out of purpleheart? YE GODS!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

"A fence out of purpleheart?" Yes, I was surprised too. My friend, a contractor, thinks of purpleheart as a tough, very durable wood, like ipe. Which I guess it is.

What was kind of funny to me is that his wife was unhappy with the fence's bright purple color, but he reassured her--"Don't worry, it will turn a nice brown in a little while."

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

Having been involved in the construction of a 300 ton tall ship with mostly Purpleheart framing, I can attest that it is not a pleasant wood to work. It has lots of splinters and dulls your tools, besides being quite heavy. And contrary to the scuttlebut, it does rot. So keep your guitars dry

Ed

When I was just starting out, a luthier here in town name of Steve Triplett was building some custom guitars for a music store on the West Coast out of purpleheart. He said he bought an extra set of chisels to work on it because it was too hard on his good chisels.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince