infiniteMPG wrote:
We just finished up putting tongue & groove pine boards in the ceiling
of our porch. The porch area is about 25-feet wide so we trimmed down
14-foot and 12-foot boards so there is a single alternating joint in
each row. Looks good and we needed to stain it so we sampled more
stains then we can shake a stick at and decided on Minwax's Ipswitch
Pine. Just now finished up all the staining (and am barely able to
type from the overhead work) and it looks great with one exception.
Some of the board parts have a high shine to them and other parts are
very dull and flat. Was just differences in parts of the wood as you
can see the patterns in the shiny areas. Biggest problem is the bare
pine was light and when you see the light reflection on the shiny
spots it looks like we missed spots but we didn't.

What we were wondering is if someone could recommend maybe a satin
clear protector or something we can spray or brush over top of the
stain, not only to protect the wood, but also to unify the finish
appearance. Would prefer a satin or dull finish over shine, but would
like something easy to apply like in spray cans. We have some
Thompson's Water Sealer in spray cans but don't want to "test" on the
actual ceiling unless we're sure we're going to do the whole thing.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

You missed the most important part of finishing softwoods (especially
pine). Pine needs a pre-conditioner to tone down the effects you are
seeing. You can buy pre-stain conditioners or classically mix up your
own such as really dilute varnish.