It is only plywood, but old plywood with a fairly nice grain pattern. Its just something for the house. The various wipe downs with white spirit didnt raise the grain pattern, I was under the impression something spirit based wouldn't do that.
I've tested the spirit dye on a few walnut veneer pieces and other scraps I had lying around, the results were also quite poor. I went with this because the other half preferred the colour and had already bought it
. I would have preferred to just use danish oil on this as it is, but unfortunately not my decision - Hopefully the danish oil will now restore some of the character that has been lost!
Adam