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I got home tonight to start pore filling my neck and found what appears to be a moldy look on the finish. Here is what I've done so far:

Sanded down to 220 grit paper.
Stained using MinWax Special Walnut
Let dry an hour and put a second coat of Dark Walnut stain.
It sat for about a week until I could complete the heel cap inlays and started looking a little "grey". I wasn't happy with how the end grain soaked up so much stain so I sanded off ALL stain, dampened the end grain parts, let it dry and sanded again. I went through 2 cycles of this.

I then stained again, and a day after staining, put on two coats of Behlen's vinyl sealer - that was three days ago and I came home today to this.

Any ideas? Could it actually be mold due to the wood not drying completely? If this theory is correct, the puzzling part is that it appears on the neck itself too, which I did not dampen. BTW, the stain on the end grain looked MUCH better.

Lastly, any ideas on what to do now? Do I need to sand it all back down again and start over? Here are a couple of pictures:

Can't help you out with your gray-ish-ism-ness but I sure do like that in-lay!

David L

that isn't mold. It appears to be in your finish. What finish are you using ?

It looks to me like the stain in the pores "popped" when you put on some glaze and it is much darker than the hog, and the hog color and stain color didn't work together very well. Just what it looks like from here.

Kevin

Looks to me like the lacquer based sanding sealer was applied over stain that was not completely dry -- I let Minwax stain dry a full two days if it is going to be coated with nitro lacquer. Difficult to tell for sure without having the part in hand.

Sorry I didn't respond earlier - I wasn't getting the notifications.

The only things I've used on it are listed on the first post above - minwax stain (two colors) and then 2 coats of Behlen's vinyl sealer ... and this is how it turned out. Had one day drying time on the minwax before the first coat of sealer.

What do you think now - sand it all back off again and start over for a third time?

are the marks like tiny bubbles? Yes start over but you should be able to take most off with lacquer thinner. If you look and see tiny bubbles, you may be putting it on too thick or being too close when spraying.

No, it's not like tiny bubbles. It literally looks just like mold but it's hard. I noticed it in the stain before the first time I sanded it off BEFORE I even put the sealer on. I thought it was because I left it sitting for a couple of weeks.

I've got another picture of a scrap piece that did the same thing. I thought it was b/c I sealed it too soon. I'm thinking KenCierp is correct and possibly the stain wasn't completely dry? I'll work on it this weekend.

Thanks -

I agree that ken may have something. Some stains have a sealer in them and you need that curing time

So John, do you recommend using lacquer thinner to remove the Behlen's and then sanding back to the bare wood - seems like this might be the only solution?