wood/metal interface, Newbie question

[Mungo Park]

I am trying to put the finishing touches on my first knife. When I sand the brass parts touching the wood (guard and brass pins) the sanded brass puts a smeer of brass on to the wood, I am useing light colour wood. I put masking tape on the wood near the guard but this only worked minimally well and not at all with the pins. I am sanding by hand and this seems to start when I use 400 grit and up. I found the same thing with a buffing wheel and white compound as it buffed it turned black and the black got on the wood How do I get around this?
Cheers Ron.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Often you can clean the smudges off with a light cleaning compound like windex,or a little Ivory liquid soap.After cleaning,hand buff with a soft cotton cloth.It is very hard to avoid staining light wood when finishing the metal.Sand in a direction away from the wood whenever possible.Buff by hand .When using a wheel,use a clean wheel at slow speed,and go easy on the buffing compound.As you already discovered,when polishing brass,the buffing compound reacts with the brass and turns black.Cleaning after buffing is the only solution that works .Masking tape helps for light touch ups.