Pits vs Birdseye Craters in Blasted Pipes

[alfredo_buscatti]

I've been fascinated by the small craters in blasted pipes, and lately I might just have understood from whence they come. They're the tops of birdseye? The birdseye is more porous than the non-grained briar so the blasting hollows out their tops? Grain is harder and is put into relief by the exposure of the non-grained briar? Whereas a pit will be bigger, not circular, like a bit of a fissure?

My apologies for not posting an illustrative picture!

 

[BigCasino]

from what I understand the birdseye is the "end" grain, wood definitely can absorb more moisture through the open end grain than the flat straight grain on the side which is why when you stain a board the ends usually are darker than any other side

 

[Anonymous]

There's no one simple answer. Pits sometimes show up in straight grain ; other times, a birdseye gets popped out during shaping. But most often they seem to show up in the transition between the two. Which, I suspect, is from cutting/shaping too rapidly -- tearing rather than cutting.

:face: 

 

[Sasquatch]

There is indeed no single straightforward answer here.

In general, if you blast birdseye, you get a moon-crater or webbed looking surface, it's possible to see individual little pits sometimes, just little soft areas that get scooped out.

Mostly, sandblasting takes an existing flaw and magnifies it - by no means is it a way of taking a heavily flawed piece of wood and making a miraculous recovery with it. Rather the opposite - many times a pipe looks really solid and you blast it and some weird thing opens up because it was a little softer or a little more porous, or a little sand pit, and blammo, you have a super ugly pipe all of a sudden. It's exciting!

If you have a "hole" in a sandblast, it's likely a little sand pit in the wood, likely absolutely normal and nothing to worry about.