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Hey folks! Hope everyone is getting ready for Chicago.

I am kinda stuck with some finishing stuff. I have tried a bunch of things and just can't get the results I'm looking for. I am having lots of trouble removing my first layer of stain from my blasts. I have wiped until nothing else comes off with DNA and a rag. I tried lightly sanding and all it does is sand down my blast. I've tried a sisal wheel lightly but to no avail. I really want to stain dark and remove the top side of the blast for some depth but just can't pull it off. Any advice?!?!

You could try putting it back in the blaster under low pressure to remove the darker stuff. I find that some pieces of briar just soak in the stain deeper than others.

Try steel wool.

Hmm! Polish ingenuity!

It works though! )

That's what I was getting at! Brilliant idea!

Just to expand on the subject a little bit: the steel wool trick only works to take stain off of the edges of the blast. It can be a very pleasing effect if you want to achieve a kind of worn, patinated (think very old dunhills after 80 years of handling) look.
However, if you want to achieve a contrast blast and remove stain from all the little crevices of the blasted surface there is no other way to do it than with sandblasting. I'm not super good at contrast blasting, I've made a few that looked pretty decent and what I do is I just stain the pipe untill it will take no more with a dark (black or mahogany) base color and then do a very light pass with the blaster. I keep the nozzle as far as possible from the pipe and just do one pass all over the pipe- good light in your blasting cabinet helps a lot, you only need to blast the surface enough to take the top layer of stain of, that way the softer fibers will retain some of the stain and create a contrast with your final stain (just as you do with contrast staining a smooth, if you sand too much you will remove your contrast, same with blasting).
Hope this helps.

Thanks so much!!!