Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - Staining table

I did do some research prior to asking this so please help me. :)

First, here's the table

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b205/victoriamwong/table.jpg

Here's the top of it:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b205/victoriamwong/tabletop.jpg

Basically, I don't know what type of wood this is. It is definitely solid wood so what I wanted to know is 1st what type of wood it is, (and since we're on the subject), I wanted to stain it or paint it (preferrably stain) black or in a dark chocolate color.

What steps do I take?

Hmmm...ok so here's what I was thinking of doing. If you guys would like to correct me or not...

First, sand it or use a paint stripper

Apply sanding sealer

Do a light sand

Apply oil based stain

I know my problem may be not knowing what type of wood this table is...but I don't know how to figure that out. :(

It might be mahagony but.............

If you wish to stain you will have to use stripper. If you paint, sanding and using a solvent base primer is ok. The only time you would want to use any sealer before staining is when dealing with soft woods and trying to make the color uniform, then you use a wash coat of sealer or a wood conditioner.

Once it is stained and a coat of poly/varnish is applied you sand lightly and recoat with poly, repeat as necessarry.

If the stain isn't as dark as you want you can use a tinted poly to further darken it. IT MUST BE APPLIED EVENLY!! or the color won't be uniform.

Looks like Maple to me.

If what you are going for is basically the same thing only darker, I would consider using a varnish stain over the current finish (after making sure I had removed any wax or oils).

Stripping the current finish thoroughly enough to properly stain the wood can be difficult. If you don't get it all, your chances of staining it evenly are slim.

Thanks guys. I'll do it a step at a time and post back when/if I run into the unknown.... :)

I'll strip it first.

Wait...I do want the stain to come out evenly, so...

Would mahagony or maple be considered soft wood? (for the sealer)

I know maple is porous, I'm pretty sure mahogany is as well.

It doesn't matter too much whether the wood is soft [porous] or hard, what matters is that the porosity of the wood is constant. Some soft woods like pine will have porous areas that obsorb stain and hard areas that don't - hence the need for a wash coat.

I don't believe you will have that problem, also stripped wood often doesn't stain the same as raw wood because it isn't always possible to remove every bit of the original stain. To get the wood as dark as you indicated [assuming you don't want to see much grain variance] you may need to coat with a tinted poly/varnish after it is stained and sealed.