1) Actually many times when using either vinegaroon or aqua fortis the wood will look gray before adding a finish - use a bit of paint thinner as a quick "finish" to see how it looks - you will most likely be surprised. Also sometimes adding tannin as suggested will help the color, but then again sometimes it will just be darker.
2) Every piece of wood even from the same board will generally be unique - with maple you also have two or three common types being sold and especially for knife handle material you sledom know for sure: red maple, silver maple, and sugar maple are the three most common and will "dye" up differently, but even of the same type the wood will do what it will do.
3) Leather dye can be good and gives a good look, but it also has a tendency to fade since it is generally not color fast when exposed to sun light much. A better alternative are the wood stains offered by LMF or Jim Chambers for muzzleloaders since all have been developed specifically for maple and hard use.
No matter what though, IMO NOTHING makes the grain jump in maple and some other woods like aqua fortis does when done right and especially when followed up by using an oil or oil based varnish finish and FWIW I've been finishing maple for 40+ years and have tried just about everything out there
and now use AF exclusively along with my own real boiled linseed oil varnish.
Any idea why one would turn out brown and the other grey? I prefer the look of the dark brown for my knife handles.
