Thanks to all You guys for all Your kind words.
And Brent, I finish Hard maple as follows:

Sand to 400 grit wet-or-dry and wet with water until the whiskers stop growing. Sand. Wet and dry. Sand. Wet and dry. You know the routine.
Next, mix up the color of stain You want with Brownells water-soluble dyes in ALCOHOL. I mix colors to match what I'm looking for, on a gun by gun basis. Drench the wood with it and let it dry. Use 0000 steel wool to even it out.
Next is the real secret.
Take boiled linseed oil and cut it with about 30% pure turpentine. Linseed oil is not a good stock finish by itself, but it soaks into the wood very deeply. Drench coat the stock and keep it dripping wet for 30 minuts. Let it set in the sun for about an hour, and wipe it down with a dust free cloth. Next let it stand in the sun for as long as it takes for you to not smell the turpentine very strongly. Usually about a week.
Now.... put on low gloss Tung oil. I have found that tung oil based finishes are very water resistant, and withstand hard use very well. They "look right" on old classic arms. Not "plastic" looking. The secret is that if You ever need to match Your finish as Your doing the work, or even a few years later, you can sand in the area you need to work on, and get through the tung oil. The linseed oil is in the wood, and the alcohol based stain will go right through it. Tung will penetrate very deeply into bare wood, but it wont go through cured linseed oil. If You put tung oil directy on the stain/wood without the linseed oil as a base, you'll never be able to get the stain to go through it again, after the first coat cures. And as we all know, that can be a pain.

As the coats of finish cure, you will "wet sand" the stock lightly with 600 grit wet-or-dry and linseed oil. If You cut into the "lighter wood" under the stain, just restain with your original stain. Works like a charm.
This is not a "slap it on fast finish" but as You can see in the photo, it's worth the work. I use the same technique when I work on walnut, just without the stain. Looks better than most modern finishes, and really lasts. It's the best way I've found to finish classic arms in 35 years of gunsmithing. Try it.