Need advice on refinishing coffee/endtables

I'm refinishing this coffee table and 2 end tables for my daughter. I have scraped 95% of the old finish off and rerouted the profile on the edge of the tops since it was easier to do instead of sanding or scraping.The parts that are darker in the pictures have been scraped but not yet sanded.


I still have a few repairs to do on them to accept the new marble inserts.

They want to stain it black. I tried minwax ebony stain and she likes it but it looks kind of brownish to me.

Would I be better off using a dye stain. She wants to still see the grain when all is said and done.

Also there was some of those tell tale water marks from not using coasters under the glasses. Is there a finish I could use that's easy to apply and get that will prevent that? And if it does still get a ring will be easy to fix?

Anyone have any idea what type of wood this is?

It looks like cherry , together black you will need to us a black dieto keep the grain.

It's hard to tell about the type of wood. In some photos, it looks like mahogany and in other areas it could be cherry.

Black TransTint dye should work nicely, I've used it on some accent pieces and it is definitely black.

Now that I am back on the computer and not my phone I can see the wood. It's not Cherry or mahogany , my best guess is , its either Hickory of Ash. I would lean more towards hickory.

So it seems we are all on the same page as far as the dye goes but what about a topcoat?

You can use what ever you want. Nut a good lacquer sealer and Pre Cat satin lacquer top coat is best.