I use RAKA a lot and would highly recommend the no-blush hardner. All the RAKA resin is the same. I would not stain under the epoxy unless you make your own using powder and alachol or acitone. Oil based stains will interfere with adhesion and many of the water based stains have acrylic bases which will clog the pores of the wood and interfere with adhesion.If you make your own with water that would be OK. I reciently added a brown coloring to epoxy for a skin boat I did. It was a special agent for epoxies bought from RAKA. I don't think it would look anywhere as nice on wood like the "MinWax" type of thing you're looking for.