The dye at the oceanographers have dumped off the beach to track microbes has leached into your cave.
Actually, it is buffing rouge from their final polish on the handles (same wheel used for blades and wood). If you oil your "standard" handles, you can rout some of it out of the grooves with a toothpick, as the oil softens it up. It collects heavily in the carvings, and I had to use many many Q Tips, with a bit of Tru Oil, to swab it out of my UBE handle and sheath. If you do it this way, be careful not to saturate the small carved details with the oil - most of the Saatisal is very hard, but a few softer spots may exist that will absorb oo much oil, and become spongy. I broke off a couple of small "corners" on my sheath with a toothpick, after I had put on too much oil. The sheath is (I think) hill walnut, and not as dense as the handle. I've "mini-sanded" and steel wooled every detail on both pieces, both dry and oiled, and you can expect to get enough swabbed off, or covered under the hardened oil coat, so that it won't come off on your hands, but the color will stay in the wood, especially the walnut.
My sheath now looks like a walnut that has been treated with the old "french red" wood filler that stockmakers once used to tone and fill small open grained spots with. Not a bad appearance overall, even if it wasn't what was originally intended. Tedious, but worth it if you're a Woodchuck.
