To Stain or to Bleach?

[VisualPun]

Hey all, i've started building a table for my HSC, but i've run into some major issues with my timber colors. I decided to use Eastern Mahogany as my Primary timber, and use American Beech in the tabletop. My original goal was to have a very light/dark contrast between the two timbers, However, What i've found is that both timbers have very similar colors. My woodwork teacher insists that i use a very dark mahogany stain, that will contrast with the lighter beech, but i'm feeling resistant to staining over 90% of my project (especially since ive never stained timber before). I was wondering if it would be easier to just Bleach the Beech, so i'm still left with a very light/dark contrast.

Any and all help will be appreciated!

http://i1270.photobucket.com/albums/...Pun/Table1.jpg

[StuartMcC]

Stain. Use a spirit based stain like feast Watson prooftint. Experiment with blending the prooftint colours to get the right tone. Also play with prooftint colour reducer to get your colour right. Practice your application method so you're confident before you do your table.

Otherwise......It's hard to take colour out of timber. I'd recommend a liming stain. But keep it subtle. If you go too thick the coating becomes opaque.