Heating Briar with fills... Bad juju

[Dixie_piper]

I decided to sand my once canadian soon to be lovat (or was) pipe down and try letting the black stain sit overnight to see if it would stand out more in contrast.
Heated it, for 12 seconds longer than normal (to get beyond luke warm) and everywhere there was a fill, CRACKED! Not sure what is used for fills, some gray crap, but as soon as I saw it the phrase "differential expansion" came to mind but all too late.
So even more questions now; what in the hell is used for fills? I've read on here that heating in the microwave was okay, is that actually so? On contrast staining, does extra coating of black dye have effect, or is it a waste of time?
I do plan on trying the tannin method as soon as the $#@! actually gets here, just trying to get the hang of finishing while tinkering with these eBay specials.
Thanks again!

P.S.- just for the record, I'm only curious about fill material for the "know so," not for using fills on my own pipes

[KurtHuhn]

I seem to recall something I read a few years ago about fill material at a particular factory being some sort of porous clay. Beyond that, I don't have any idea.

[TRS]

I seem to recall something I read a few years ago about fill material at a particular factory being some sort of baby seal product. Beyond that, I don't have any idea.

[Sasquatch]

In furniture making, you can fill with latex based muck that has wood ground up in it, epoxy based much that has wood ground up in it, glue that has wood ground up in it, or those plasticy-waxy melt-in sticks.

Why the hell are you putting pipes in the microwave, Dix?

I have upon occassion, put a pipe in front of a gentle warm-air current from my shop heater. Stain dries in 2 minutes that way.

[Dixie_piper]

Why the hell are you putting pipes in the microwave, Dix?

I read somewhere on here about heating the briar allows the stain to penetrate deeper? I may have read it elsewhere thinking it was here, but I remember (where ever I read it) the guy claiming to use a microwave for this and getting results.
It doesn't sound quite right to me, but I figured it was worth a try... it wasn't in this case.
So the heating for penetration is more like a warming up rather than nuking it? Not asking to be a smart ass, more like, as a demonstration of my being a gullable dumb ass

[KurtHuhn]

If you do decide to heat the stummel before applying stain, I suggest using a heat gun. The heat is much more controllable that way. I've also been known to use my MAPP torch to set the stain alight when I need the stummel dry to continue sanding - this may have some effect of warming the stummel and driving stain in, but I don't believe that the difference is all that great at the end of the day. Mostly I do it just to dry the stain in a hurry.

I don't really find heating the stummel prior to staining to be necessary. If you use a good stain, like Feibings leather dye, you will always get a good penetration and coverage if you haven't sanded to a million grit first.

[Dixie_piper]

Okay, thanks.
Yeah, I'm ordering some fiebings pronto. This whole "experimental" stage with finish is why I was gathering up cheap estate pipes, I figured get my first few mistakes (as I know there's more to come) with staning and sanding outta the way before I spend forever shaping a barely recognizable shape only to flub up the finish
The biggest pain I'm running into is getting the carnuba to take to the wheel. I'm using a drill for the time being (which has also bumped my ordering step pulleys WAY up on the list) so I'm unsure of RPM, and limited to some less than desirable buffs.
But, I've installed my adaptor arbor, re-wired, and started mounting my buffing station so I'll soon be rid of that issue.
As it stands now, my only spot on method for the desired RPMs would by my drill press, but again, that limits me to the shoddy arbor and smaller buffs
Hoping to get all this squared away this weekend