Staining Merbau hardwood

It's been a few weeks since my last post, I've been slammed with orders - crazy!  But I'm trying to experiment more with the reclaimed hardwood floor that I now have stashed all over our Manhattan apartment LOL (my husband is not nearly as thrilled about this as I am). 

The wood is Merbau, a reddish-brown hardwood and the underside is unfinished and has grooves in it to connect with the other pieces for making a floor.  I was excited to use the underside as the front of a chandelier because I thought it looked really rustic and kind of industrial which is the look I love so much.

So I tried out the charcoal stain on the Merbau and it turned out pretty cool.  Because the wood is darker than the birch plywood I've been staining, it looks very different.

On the left side is 2 coats of the Minwax Charcoal stain, middle is 1 coat, and on the right is the original color of the wood

I also tried staining the Merbau wood in Ebony and it turned out fantastic.  Here is a fixture I made with one 4ft panel of the floor with the pendant Edison bulbs:

More posts to come very soon!  I am aiming to finish the chandelier with the raw gemstones this week so pics are coming shortly.