In article , Alun Saunders wrote:
I was turning a biggish ash bowl the other day and had a bit of trouble
with slight tearout on the end grain. When sanding I thought why not use
a technique I'd used on other woods of dampening the end grain areas to
raise the grain a little. All I got for my trouble was a nasty pinkish
red stain which went deep enough that I had to resort to scraping again
to get rid of it.

So, is this a peculiarity of ash, or do other woods do it as well? And
what is exactly happening here?

Minerals in your water? Just guessing, but I wonder if the same thing happens
if you use distilled water.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt.
And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?