suggested stain for cherry?

[hansg/Ups]

I carved a knife haft out of a seasoned black cherry branch.
Is there some common household product to bring the color in the wood?After staining/enhancing the color,I would put on some linseed or tung oil to seal it.
Thanks for the help.

PS I'm trying out tea as a leather stain on unfinished,tanned leather.

[GRIMJIM]

Try putting linseed oil on a sample piece. Cherry loks pretty nice without stain. Sand the sample as you would your piece. I bet it turns out pretty good.

[littlecanoe]

I'd agree with grimjim.

Cherry will darken, become more red over time as it is exposed to light. 
Trying a sample of linseed is good. 
I'd also try a bit of tung oil to see how you like it.

I like to take a drop of tung oil on my finger and rub it into the wood with friction causing it to dry.
Work over the whole piece this way.  You can use your palm on larger surfaces. 
A fella can build up a lot of coats in a short time this way and the results is fairly nice.

[StrawHat]

I recently rehandled a kitchen knife with a piece of cherry.  For finish I used orange shellac, applied as french polish.  Turned out nice, a good waxing and it's done.  Unless you are going to be using alchol around the knife, shellac is a good sealer and finish.

[hansg/Ups]

Thanks for the suggestions.A person mentioned alka root.Looking on the Net,apparently a red solution/stain can be made with alcohol.Don't know where I'd find this root[or extract].Supposedly the plant also has medicinal properties.

[AtlLaw]

I built a Southern Mountain Rifle a number of years ago and used cherry wood for the stock.  After all these years the stock looks real nice, but let me tell you, C W is a be-otch to finish! 

Read up on finishing cherry wood in particular, there should be stuff out there on the IN, or resort to old books on furniture finishing.  Suffice it to say it doesn't take stain or finish evenly... 

Remind me and I'll try to take a couple of pictures.