I’ve found my finishing problem: I’m building things out of pine.
Traditional stain, gel stain, urethane, tung oil, danish oil…on oak, cherry or maple many of these look fine. No matter what I put on pine, it comes out looking like a septic prolapse.
I really only used a 2x4 because I was trying out my new milling tools and just wanted something cheap to play with, and I figured I could get some use out of what I made, so I replaced my keyboard tray. I now buy rough sawn lumber from a local sawyer.