I tried a few things that haven’t worked. I started with something I could find at home Depot, which is this stain/poly combo. It is supposed to be completely black, but it’s very streaky, so I bailed on that. I have since bought some “India ink” and some black acrylic paint. I will try the samples a few ways. The prestain seemed to actually be the opposite of what I thought I wanted, in that it helped seep further into the wood. It did seem to stop at the first veneer though, so I’m still going to try it again. Having the first veneer perfectly stained would be excellent.