I got really lucky and found a Sasieni 4-Dot Ruff Root at an antique store for $7. It was in really rough (or perhaps Ruff) condition, however, with an oxidized stem and a heavily charred rim. So I began the process of doing a full restoration on it. After scrubbing and scrubbing to work the charred material off, I then soaked the whole stummel in denatured alcohol overnight to strip the stain so I could give it some fresh color. After doing so, I noticed that the stain didn't strip like normal, and parts of the bowl maintained a shine. This led me to realize that this pipe had not been originally stained, but varnished. I would have to do a full sanding to strip the varnish, and I wasn't going to attempt that out of fear of ruining the gorgeous texture of the craggy sandblast. So I figured I'd just attempt to stain over the varnish and see what happens. I started with a dark burgundy stummel, and applied dark brown leather dye for stain. And what happened? I kid you not, after a few minutes of drying the pipe started to look a very dark Godzilla green! What's more, it became intensely shiny, almost to the point of looking like it was glowing. So I left it to dry to see what would happen. Hours later, much to my surprise, the stain was still wet to the touch, and the green certainly hadn't faded. I realized that the varnish had completely blocked the dye from being absorbed, and created some sort of film or refractive mask in the process. So I wiped and washed the stain off, and the green faded. But there's a happy ending: after wiping the radioactive green off, the dark brown look I had hoped for had stuck. Tragically I didn't think to take pictures before wiping off the green. Anyway, varnish is weird stuff, y'all. :crazy:
