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?
--
Alun Saunders