: Hi Roger, I wet the wood down with water so the color would photograph
: better. One of the Spruce shapes didn't pop out clearly so I ran my block
: plane over the whole thing wet. The stain must be (tannin?) from the
: cedar. My strip-soaking water gets the same color. I work a little messy
: sometimes

: There are streams out on the Washington State coast that flow the color of
: tea; they must perk through miles of fallen Cedar logs.

My system for the finished wood preview is to get the wood good and clean (pressurized air) and then apply Denatured alcohol to the wood. No stain, evaporates quickly and gets down into the pores of the wood so you can really see that final look. This works very well, especially on fancy grain woods like African Mahogany. The three dimensional aspect of this wood really comes out.
In a few minutes the wood is dry and your back to working on the boat. It also does not affect the standard tight bond woods glues that are on the market.

Roger