Thread: Help to keep stain from soaking into other areas?

Hi, I'm doing some vcarving on my cnc router and have encountered an issue that I hope someone can help me. I use the range of prooftint stains on pine to darken the carved out writing and other engraved parts but still have the rest of the wood in either it's natural colour or another stain. The issue I'm having it that the black prooftint soaks in very well, actually too well and when it comes time to lighten it by sanding back the top, it just doesn't lighten. Mainly due to the black stain penetrating even right through 19mm of pine and appearing on the back.

I've used other colours like in the example photo. This was teak stain prooftint. Now it seems to only penetrate a little bit into the pine and I'm successful when sanding back the high spots to give contrast.

Would coating the pine first with a sealer like shellac reduce the black stain from penetrating too far and allow me to sand the pine to remove the black? Or is there another stain product that other woodworkers use that gives a nice black contrast yet is easily sandable to remove the stain once dry?

Not sure if it makes a difference but with the engraved photo, the maximum depth is only .8mm so I can't be sanding too aggressively otherwise I loose detail in the photo.

Also attached another photo showing how the black stain leaves its mark around the top of the pine. I used black prooftint in the engraved lettering but some areas on the top got the stain on it also. Didn't matter how much wiping I did, the black still stayed there. When I went to stain the top of the board in another colour, the black still shows through.

Thanks.
Shane.