Quick Question - Should I be attempting to remove these marks by sanding?

[chrisfoot]

This is a pistol grip stock.   I am not sure if these horizontal marks were made by the machine that roughed out the stock for the kit I just got.

I have lightened them up by sanding.  They were much more pronounced.    I am trying to not take a whole lot more off.    If I place a straight edge on top of these - they are definitely not undulations in the wood.  It is straight.

Was this the machine or the wood?    Should I continue to sand these?

Thanks!

[BrentD]

What horizontal marks?  Are you talking about the wood's grain, or the fiddle figure that it appears to have? 

I'm not sure what is "horizontal" on a rifle anyway.

[Curt Larsen]

Chris:  You're looking at the figure in the maple.  It is supposed to be there.  Looks like you have a nice piece of wood.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Chrisfoot, I think you're looking at figure in the wood (walnut ?)  You will not be able to remove the "marks".  And your image is so out of focus, if there were marks there, we wouldn't be able to see them.  You must be referring to the darker coloured bars that appear to go across the longitudinal plane of the stock.

[Ky-Flinter]

Chris,

Welcome to ALR.  When you rub your fingers across the wood, is it smooth?  What grit paper did you start with and what grits have you used so far?

-Ron

[dogcreek]

Chrisfoot, that's the figure in the wood. You can't sand it out. You're lucky to have nice grain like that in the stock.

[dickert54cal]

Chrisfoot, that's the figure in the wood. You can't sand it out. You're lucky to have nice grain like that in the stock.

Ditto---I would love to see it when you are finished.

[twistedtree]

He is right that is the figure in the wood your lucky to have such a pc.

[wetzel]

Another vote for figure in the wood.  Looks like walnut, and should come out very pretty.

[Paddlefoot]

One other thought. Out of focus photo. Could it be that the wood got lightly burned there in the shaping process?  The marks would still be because of the hard & soft grain but show up for a different reason. I'd let it go until I got to the final finishing stage and see what happened when you whisker the stock after final carving and shaping.