Bet my recipe looks pretty close to Joel's in the end.

I bult an entire desk top out of flame (as in on fire!) birch I was
lucky enough to come across. I sanded to 400 and got it all as smooth
as possible.

Clean with a tack cloth with some thinner on it (no paper towels, socks
or flannel) made of an old T shirt or something along those lines. All
cotton, white, no synthetics materials or blends to dissolve or leach
color.

To light off the grain, I used a formula I got right here about 7-8
years ago. Equal parts of boiled linseed oil, 3# cut shellac (Zinzeer
blond for me) and pure gum turpentine. (Pure gum as opposed
"turpentine" made out of who knows what). Stirred well, put in the
kitchen to sit overnight and then used the next day.

I put it on with a clean bristle brush pretty heavily and then wiped
any excess off. Not much as I rememeber as the wood was raw and this
basecoat/finsh is thin. Any place that needed a little more finish was
easily handled with a little on a piece of tack cloth. It made that
wood spring to life... it pentrated really well, and left the wood with
a beautiful honey color to it. All the flame showed beatifully.

Since it was going on desk top, I finished it with 5 coats of satin
poly, each coat thinned about 10% with mineral spirits and applied with
an 8" pad (no brush strokes).

The surface has worn exceptionally well and still looks great.

Robert