Bleaching wood

[sophiejazz]

I do not like the orangie red colour of our stair frame. It looks mahaogany but most likely a cheaper hardwood. The spindles and hand rail, newly installed, are oak. I was going to paint the stair frame white but the wood looks so good (apart from the colour) since we stripped it of varnish, it feels a bit like sacrilege.
I've looked on line about bleaching and there are mixed opinions, certainly household bleach doesn't seem to work and whilst wood bleach can be bought from ebay it isn't sold in the likes of B&Q.
Anyone had any success bleaching a naturally dark wood and if so what did you use?

 

[foxhole]

Have used wood bleach on floorboards , result was very pale, would imagine hard wood will only lighten a little, you could try on scrap first.