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Anyone built with Brazilian Kingwood? Does it stay its original color? Im thinking bout getting a Brazilian Kingwood guitar set. It's really purple. Im wondering if it stays purple? OR is it more like Purple Heart where it has a tendency to go Brown with age or oxidation?

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It holds its color much better than purpleheart, but as with other rosewoods you will get some color change with time. Also, like other rosewoods, there is some color variation from tree to tree. I haven't used a lot of kingwood, but what I have used has held up well.

I have some 40+ year old sawn kingwood veneer that is brown. I suspect that finish would slow down the color change from oxidation, but I think it will happen eventually.
Even so, I would not compare it to aged purpleheart, which is rather bland. With the contrast of the darker striping, I think it is quite attractive.

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John

Beautiful wood, saw this recently. It's not all purple. Beautiful wood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z40itiS2IA

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I went up into the shop this morning and rooted around in my resaw stash and found some king wood I resawed in year 2000. I brought it down and scrapped the surface to reveal fresh wood and took some pictures. The wood ha not been subjected to sunlight (or much kind of any light for that matter) so that may have helped it hold its color.
The piece of wood I resawed was 4/4 heavy (rough) and I got 5 useable slices from it. It was 6"X3 ft. long (1.5 bd ft.) @$15/bd. ft. it cost $22.50 and has yielded enough wood for a small parlor guitar, an octave mandolin and probably a couple of head plates. I miss those days!
Also posted is a photo of kingwood veneer under finish showing what a sandthrough looks like when you restack and laminate with west system matched veneers in the same order they were cut.