Are there different types of beech? I did a Mercury beech stock up recently. I took it right down until all the stain was gone and applied some pine stain as I wanted to keep it light. Finished it with Danish oil and ended up with a nice golden colour, much as I would have expected. This week I've been doing a TX beech stock. Same treatment, but didn't use any stain at all, expecting a very light finish. First coat of oil this afternoon and it looks like it's going to come up mid brown! A lot darker than the mercury which had some stain applied. How does that work then?