@natural farmer I understand that you are a little shocked and worried about the discoloration of the middle section and the possibility of inhaling burned wood.
It is absolutely normal that the wood soaks up some of the oils and is also normal that the wood gets dark from the heat but this doesn`t mean you are actually inhaling smoke. Wood burns way above the point of vaporization of the botanical resins but it gets dark quite quickly and stays stable after this for a long time. There is some wear and tear happening on the middle section but I am talking about using it for thousands of times before the middle section is worn to the point it needs replacing. I don`t recommend to do any sanding on the middle section at all, especially not on the flat ring part standing on the filter, this would lower the position of the two steel pins resulting that your vapman isn`t closing tightly anymore. It is a good thing to clean the filter now and then (I know people which never clean the filter) but don`t touch the wood too much. Scraping off the residues very gently and using a cotton swab soaked with some solvent will do the job. To get rid of the soaked up oils, you can actually immerse the whole middle section in acetone, this will not harm the wood in any way but solve the oils. As already mentioned before, vapman is very low maintenance and doesn`t need to be cleaned very often, at the latest when the mouthpiece is completely blocked and there is no more air coming through.
(I have seen this)
After being on the market for such a long time, all the characteristics of vapman are well known already and we are walking on old paths with nothing really new to be expected.
I am aware that for everyone new to vapman, it is a new path to be explored but on this thread we have quite a lot of experienced path finder showing us the way.
Nothing is perfect but vapman is definitely as good as a vaporizer of 20 grams weight can be!
vapman