Dye works good but has a "cool" blueish color to it. But if you thin it a bit and put a light coat on the wood before the stain, then your "base" color of the wood it dark to begin with and the stain will be darker as a result - I have never used dye by itself.
We use Accessa Coating's stain -
http://www.accessa.biz/productdetail.aspx?product=1&sproduct=0 -in our cabinet shop, the have a Mocha stain that is very dark with a brownish undertone. These stains are 'what you see is what you get' in other words when youstain the board the first time, that's the color, if you put a second or third coat on it the color doesn't change. Whereas with minwax and most other store bought stains you need to put on multiple coats to get a dark color, these companies save money buy not putting a bunch o pigment in their product.
Varnish, varnish, varnish...especially the ends!
