Finishing Tasmanian Oak Bookcase - Plywood & Timber

[Robot]

Questions are underlined. Any responses or general suggestions appreciated. The rest is the long winded background.

I've gone down the Feast Watson route because Bunnings has it and I'd like repeatable and accessible results if decide to make matching items in the future.
So i tried on an offcut of plywood
1. Prooftint (Walnut)
2. 3 coats of shellac orange/amber mixed per instructions. I put 3 coats on for the fun of it because I didn't have any poly coats at hand.
Loved the colour and the grain contrast but it was just to shiny (was 3 coats of shellac a bit silly?) and it wasn't incredibly smooth. So i did some more research and found out Tasmanian Oak is open grain with probably explains the roughness

So now I've moved to the good pieces -
1. Sanding Sealer and lightly sanded back at 220 and 320
2. Prooftint
3. Shellac (yet to be done)
4. Poly Coats (yet to be done)
My observations are that
1. the thing is still very smooth 2. the colour isn't as dark or consistent as I'd like compared to the original sample board


I tried putting a second coat of prooftint on a hidden area but it became REALLY patchy. I'm not sure why?
On a second hidden area I've put a bit of shellac on to see whether that darkens the wood a bit more with the orange/amber? (I'll be checking the results tomorrow morning!). But if it isn't dark enough I've also...
Added a bit of prooftint (it says it is spirit based) to the shellac and put that on another hidden area. I'll also see how it goes tomorrow (was this a good/feasible idea?)
The extremely helpful and informed Bunnings guy in Mentone said to actually 1) do the prooftint first then 2) the sanding sealer, and sand it back. he said the instructions were so people didn't sand out the stain whilst sanding the sanding sealer but if i was careful I'd maybe get a bette result. I obviously chickened out and went with the instructions because I'm pretty new to this stuff. What to people think of the Bunning staff person suggestions?
I'm basing this project from The Wood Whisperer project bookcase project. Marc put the shellac on before a gel stain but I followed the Feast Watson instruction. I was worried about the prooftint not getting through the shellac and following label instructions. Who is more right, or are the scenarios not comparable?


Any help or experiences would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, I hope you've enjoyed reading my long story :p

Robot

[Master Splinter]

If you are after a super flat finish, fill the grain with Timbermate wood putty. Thin it a little (10%ish) to help it get into the grain.
Use shellac at half strength as a sanding sealer.
Apply the sanding sealer BEFORE any stain. especially on pine which is one of the more blotch-prone woods. However, spirit based tints may react and soften the sanding sealer, undoing its de-blotching abilities; a turps based stain may give your a more even result.
Tints in shellac work; they can be used to help even out blotches but mix them understrength as it's easier to creep up on a colour rather than sand and start again if you overshoot your target!
You can keep applying shellac/sanding until you get the build you want (ie all the way to a piano gloss) but after 3-4 coats you are not getting any added timber protection.
If you are going for a poly finish, skip the after-stain shellac and just go straight to polyurethane (Minwax Wipe-On poly recommended), however IMHO an oil finish is much better even if it is three times the work!

And...make sure you have your finishing process worked out and finalised on scrap before you start finishing the piece! Once you have a test piece that is finished to your satisfaction DON'T CHANGE THE PROCESS WHEN YOU DO THE FINAL (otherwise, why bother testing?).