Max Pitt wrote:
[snip]

What was the the original finish that I desecrated?  Seemed too thick to
be shellac based.  Possibly a high build nitrocellulose lacquer with
stain incorporated in it.  I must have left some remnants of the
original on the knob when I started polishing with alcoholic shellac
solution,  and it kept bleeding dirty red-brown stains.

-------

You may be actually leeching the pigment from the wood. Don Berry had a
similar experience with cocobolo (a rosewood), where basically all of
the "brown" was removed from the wood. If your plane is a type 11, the
knob and tote were not stained.... at least not by man.

Paddy
-- 
+================================================================+
| O'Deen's flea market credo: "It's better to be lucky than good"|
| http://www.vividnet.com/~odeen                                 |
+================================================================+