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.
Rob Cosman has videos about this subject on YouTube, you should check it out. It is possible to finish pine. For me, most of the time it’s just not worth it though.