Doesn't it depend on the wood below?

I have attached a couple of pics of one of mine. When I got it, it had been varnished. Got rid of that and found that the wood underneath was protected and perfect. It was still dark in colour. I used some red mahogany woodstain for the initial colouring and then applied LO and then BLOicon. After that I rubbed in various colours of artists linseed oilicon paint with fine wire wool until the colour was right (for me).

Steve