I bought some burnished Rose City cedar shafts at Cloverdale. After looking at them I didn't think they would stain good. I used a dark walnut stain on one shaft and then lightly sanded one with 320 grit to roughen it up a bit and then stained it. They both stained about the same, very light.
Any ideas?
I had a tough time staining cedar shafts too.
I tried dark walnut alcohol based stain from 3 Rivers...works great.
I sand them lightly before applying.
Analine will not work well with the "burnished" shafts from Rose City. Why? Because they are using the old "Acme" machinery to perform the burnishing and with that process they have to use a lubricating agent with that machinery that partially seals the shaft. I would suggest a water based "stain" that you can get from any Home Depot. You can apply this and let it dry and then use a water based poly as final coats and you should do well with that.