Problem with staining canopy

[BrentN]

Actually just the lid. The rest looks good, but I scratched the lid while sanding the topcoat. The scratches were deep, so I sanded it back down to bare wood, working my way up to 320 grit. Now as I re-stain (I'm using black stain, helmsmen spar poly for topcoat) the grain is not showing through. Is there something I need to do after sanding to get the grain to show through the stain? I'm using oak, btw.

 

[Fl_seagull]

Normally oak grain is is hard to hide. The primary reason is the open pore hold more pigment. I have only seen this problem twice. Once because of too much stain; effectively hiding the grain under pigment. The second because of the pores where effectively sealed with grain filler. Since the stain was evenly adsorbed the grain was not visable.

It is possible the first coat sealed the pores and thus when you stained the stain was evenly adsorbed. Thus, hiding the grain.