In article , Alun Saunders wrote:
Doug Miller wrote:
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.

We've got the softest water imaginable here (Co. Wicklow, Ireland), so I
don't think that's it. It could be a little acidic though since it
percolates through the peat of the Wicklow Mountains and has a very
slight brownish tinge. Thing is I've not noticed this effect on other
woods, only Ash (so far).

The ions that cause water hardness (principally Ca and Mg) are only a small
subset of the minerals that may be present in water, so softness by itself is
no guarantee of low mineral content. Whatever's causing that "very slight
brownish tinge" may be reacting with something in the wood to cause the
pinkish discoloration. See what happens if you put a little steam-distilled
water on the same board.

--
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?