Cagey
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It depends on the hardwood you're talking about. For example, mahogany, cherry, oak, and ash are all hardwoods and they take stain like they were born to it. Others, like maple, will take it but come out blotchy and mottled. The difference between those examples is open-cell vs. closed-cell wood. Maple happens to be a closed-cell wood. There are other cases where the wood is just too oily to take stain. Purple heartwood, rosewood, cocobolo and ebony, for example, would fall in that category. Finally, stains are transparent, so you have to consider the color of the wood before you stain it. A dark wood is not going to ever change color, per se. You're simply going to make it a darker version of what it already is.
A neat toy some of the paint/finishing supply stores have these days is a scanner that can look at a sample of what you'd like, then a sample of what you have, and the computer will come back with a recipe for a stain that will create a matching color, if possible. They're surprisingly effective even across dissimilar woods, and it's usually a free service.
A neat toy some of the paint/finishing supply stores have these days is a scanner that can look at a sample of what you'd like, then a sample of what you have, and the computer will come back with a recipe for a stain that will create a matching color, if possible. They're surprisingly effective even across dissimilar woods, and it's usually a free service.
