Forget the advice from "some guy at the store." Wood conditioners are meant to prevent splotching, but they do a poor job at that. Stains are of two basic types - Pigments : finely ground powders - Dyes : chemicals that are dissolved Think of third grade science where you put dirt in a jar of water and shook it and sugar in a jar of water and shook it. What was the difference the next day? The dirt mostly settled out to the bottom. The sugar remained in solution. Pigments work like the dirt and dye like the sugar. The big contrast comes about because the earlywood (large pores) get a lot of pigment in them and the latewood (hard and smooth), does not absorb so much because it's wiped off. Dyes, on the other hand will absorb more evenly and reduce the contrast (at least color wise). So, what you want is a dye. Problem is, Minwax stains are sometimes dyes, sometimes pigments, and often both. They don't tell you. I suggest looking up Bob Flexner's "Understanding Wood Finishing" at your local library, where he shows photos of oak dyed on one half and pigmented on the other. Then get some scrap of oak and test out your intended products and processes on the scrap before starting on your newel post. It's easier to not make a mistake than it is to recover from one. You can get dyes at most woodworking stores such as Rockler and Woodcraft, or via mail order. You can control the concentration by how much dye you add to solvent (distilled water in most cases). So you might want to mix up a series of concentrations and apply each to see the resulting color. But to see the true color, you will have to apply the finish coats as finishes intensify the stain colors.

Not my house but here's an idea of what it looks like. We are only talking about the "level" area on the floor (the component on the right in this pic), and not the glass that goes up or down the side of the stairs themselves. Basically, just several sheets of tempered glass with no posts or rods. In each case, there is a hard wall at one end that you could attach a rod onto, but nothing to attach at the other end. Suffice to say, I am pretty peeved at my nasty neighbor who called this in. We are ending up with about $25,000 of additional repairs that we hadn't planned for....

I really like that!! You may be right that it is better done in a new build, but it's certainly a question I can run by one of our contractors. Even if we can't do it, you really nailed the look I was hoping for : )) Here is the best I've seen on Houzz, but it's difficult to choose online. https://tinyurl.com/SandedBronzeSquareHandRail

Local glass shop that does glass railings.