It's called "toning", and it's an absolutely essential part of finishing. If for no other reason than "how can you reproduce 100+ years of fade, in a couple days?"
I use alcohol based dye primarily.
Here's a veneered fir door becoming a vintage solid pine door w/ linseed oil finish.
Fir door, sealed with shellac to stop blotching
orignals color and tone
Putting some black in the background for texture, you can see where glue from the factory prevented stain takeup. You have to daub that color on just before top coat.
tinted finish to match originals, Black lays in the softwood to highlight streaking to match early pine doors. Top color tinted a cranberry color to capture the red of the originals.
It's quite transformative.
