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Good morning!

I am finishing a new pipe and i am experiencing a situation with this block. It seems that in the lower part of the stummel the wood is darker than in the upper part. Also it seems that the grain is darker in the upper part than in the lower part, maybe due to the wood beeing lighter the grain is darker. I sanded the stummel evenly and i applied the undercoat stain also evenly. Is this normal? What could be the cause of this? A bad block?

Thank you in advance.

Regards,

Bruno

Sounds..... sounds like you have a piece with heartwood at the bottom and sapwood at the top. Not the end of the world.

You can even it out with your choice of DNA or rubbing alcohol.

Course if that one part isn't taking much stain it could be tricky.

What wood is this.

Serious question, do burls have sap and heart?

Thank you for the help guys.

SchmidtN wrote:What wood is this.

Serious question, do burls have sap and heart?

Yes. Sapwood being the grainy stuff, usually not as dense as the heartwood, which is more uniform in look, and often harder, and often darker. I'll see if I have a piece I can get a picture of.

Yeah, when I was typing that I was thinking along the lines that burls are kind of like tree knots or tumors.

Then I thought about all the times I've read about people blasting a pipe and parts just melting away and was all

It's wood. Color variations are common in most species. Not always desirable for your project, but if you can catch the color variations in advance, sometimes you can use them artistically.

Wiping down planed/sanded stock with mineral spirits will usually show up color variations. It's not a bad idea to do this to your stock before you get everything shaped.