Getting the Red Right?

[addamsruspipe]

Evening all. I have been playing around with some new color stains I got in and hoping for some advise. I am trying for some sharp black grain with red on top. So I am doing 2 coats of black, then sanding it down. Then I put on 1 coat of red and then polish it. You can see in the pictures of these two practice pipes what I am ending up with. I am trying to figure out how to sharpen the look of the black grain and make the red more polished. Any ideas?

 

[danielplainview]

What kind of stain are you working with? There could still be old wax in the rustication if your black stain isn’t sticking.
For a good contrast, I wait 24 hours between application, sanding and secondary color.

 

[addamsruspipe]

I used Fiebings black and red. I only waited about 20 min between stains and sanding. So move it out to a day then between first color and second then?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

It does look very matte and opaque. I am by no means a stain nor briar expert, (but I have re-stained a few of my pipes) but maybe go ahead and start using the finest sandpaper until you get down to a hint of the original briar? I will check in to see what the real stain experts say.