Hi all, I'm recycling an old Tassie Oak bench top and want to stain it to pick up some of the tone in a spotted gum floor. I know I won't match it exactly but it would be good to get it closer in tone to the floor.

Ive rubbed some Feast Watson Elm Prroftint onto an off cut of the bench and have found that it really soaks into some of the laminated sections of the bench, like they are a lot more porous than the surrounding bits. The grain in the porous bits stands out badly, they look like black stripes whereas the other boards are the nice even browny tone that I was looking for.

Theres also a couple of blemishes in the sample piece where the sander has dug in a little so obviously I'll need to take a little more care with sanding, but I'm wondering if there's a way of pretreat the timber to avoid the porous boards from absorbing too much stain?

I was going to finish the bench after staining with a satin polyurethane but I'd like to avoid the bench turning yellow with age....is there any clear hard wearing coat that's suitable for a kitchen bench that will avoid this?

Thanks in advance for your wisdom!