I have a project for which the finish has to be a very dark color, ebony, "expresso" sort of, but still have to show some grain, so it looks its real wood.
I picked up Minwax Oil Based Ebony Stain, which I have used on Pine with great results, as it seems the darker stain available.
For this project I was supposed to use a hardwood called Okume which in my tests seems its not darkening enough at all... let's say it darkens like the 40% of the dark Pine could get. I made some samples and that was the result.
I have not get the wood yet, so, I could change to a type of wood that get a nice dark color.
From my local wood suppliers, besides Pine and Okume, I can get Banack, Sande, Maple, Oak Red, Birch, Poplar, Cedrillo (Sande).
In your experience, which of these woods could get me a rich nice dark tone?