Furstrated with finishing

[lolwood]

I discovered puzzle cutting and love it but my finishing is something else. I've tried stains and washes but no matter how careful I am the finish bleeds into the cut edge surfaces. The worse thing is that the wood will sometimes soak up the finish and leave a dark area while right next to it the finish barely
penetrates. It just looks bad. How in the world can you prevent this? I color each piece so soaking may work but there's no way I can finish before I cut since I slightly round my edges and that would leave bare wood edges. My outside cut edges get a good sanding so I don't have a problem there but if I sand the inside cuts that well the puzzle will be a very sloppy fit and some of them will be stand up designs.

[JohnB]

G'day lolwood,
That is a problem with most stains. They rend to go darker on end grain and just around the edges if not sanded properly. Some one out there may have a suggestions but this is a difficult one.
I do two puzzles that I stain, one is "A Pile of Pups" and the other "A heap of Cats" I stain the different dogs and cats various colours. The way I do it is to apply the stain with a cloth on the face, brush it on the end grain and then wipe it of with the cloth. It's messy, but it works.
When I lacquer them I always spray.