I found myself considering whether I could satisfactorily make maple dowel with the grain running across the wood instead of lengthwise.
LOL! I went so far as buying plug cutters! I smoked through a couple of hardwoods with that experiment... FAIL

Then I bought a bag of 100 pine furniture plugs and went through the entire bag to find 4 that might be close grain-wise, but being pine, it took dye very differently... FAIL. (and that was with countless dilutions and washes trying to balance the colour!)

Ended up dowelling and painting. Can't see a thing now!