Black Lockwood water-soluble dye will stain maple very black without obscuring like paint.
A friend of mine was working on a small project with maple. He wanted it to be dark. He asked if dye would do it, or should he use a different wood?
Dye is the answer. You can either use a higher concentration of dye than what the manufacturer recommends or apply several coats. Let each one dry completely before you apply the next. But there are some caveats to this answer.
When I started woodworking forty years ago, the dyes sold by Woodcraft, Rockler (now The Woodworkers Store) and other companies were made by W. D. Lockwood. These were the dyes that I started with. The company still exists at www.wdlockwood.com, and its dyes are also available from www.woodworker.com, and www.toolsforworkingwood.com among other online sources. The Lockwood dyes I used (and still use) came in powder form for me to dissolve in water.
Water is not compatible with lacquer, of course, so when I sprayed lacquer and wanted to tint it to make a toner, I used what were (and still are) called non-grain-raising (NGR) stains. These dyes are called metal-complex, or metalized. They come already thinned with acetone (methanol back then). Now several companies provide concentrated versions of this dye. TransTint, the most popular and widely used dye, is as effective for tinting lacquer (and other water-based finishes), as are the NGR dyes. These are available from a variety of suppliers to professional finishers. Perhaps because I am so familiar with the water-soluble Lockwood dyes, I have never found metal-complex dyes to be as effective in staining wood. You can use them, for example, to make maple black.
Recently, a dye from General Finishes became available at woodworking stores, but it is very different from Lockwood and NGR because it containsan acrylic binder, which locks the color in place so it cant be darkened with many coats without building on top and muddying the wood. It is also unlike other dyes.
Lockwood and the concentrated metal-complex dyes, it cant be made into a higher concentration of color to liquid.
Why do I give you all this background? Because it is impossible to tell my friend to dye his maple to blacken it. I have to tell him to use Lockwood water-soluble dye.
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