What could be the cause of this stain?

Vespa Bob

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As I was bending the sides of my latest ukulele, using Honduras Mahogany, on my hot iron, I noticed hat the wood started turning a rusty red color. Also, the stain got on my hands when I wiped them across the wet surface. By the time I had finished, both sides of the bent wood had turned this color. After the sides had dried out, I started to sand the stain off and soon realized that it was going to take quite a bit of work to completely remove it. Fortunately, I had left the wood thicker to allow for sanding, but I didn't for see sanding it quite this much!
Do any of you experts out there have any idea how this happened? The only thing I noticed afterwards was that there was a slight build up of a dark brown substance on the hot pipe, possibly from the wood from my last project, which was Peruvian Walnut, but it looked to me more like burnt residue on the metal, certainly not the rusty red color of the stain. What gives? Any ideas? Here's a pic of the bent sides and the original mahogany.

Bob
 

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I can offer no intelligent idea on what caused this effect other than maybe it got scorched or the wood was not completely seasoned or....? Anyway, I could say that maybe this adds interest to the wood and it now has "figure"? Maybe looks kinda cool? Incorporate it into your design?
 
"What could be the cause of this stain?" --- this could be the title of any Law and Order, or Discovery ID show! Sorry, this just made me laugh when I saw the title :)
 
I've seen stains when the heat and steam forces some resins in the wood to the surface. Nothing like that though. Its usually blotchy and just around the waist, and never red. Maybe your wood oxidized from the heat?? Its a pretty color though....maybe you can sand it into a sunburst type finish
 
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